The former India cricketer turned veteran commentator Sanjay Manjrekar applauded left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav for removing England opener Zak Crawley during England’s run chase in the second Test as Team India won the second Test by 106 runs to level the five-match series 1-1. He also said that Crawley was looking comfortable in the middle, having scored 73 runs off 132 balls, including one six and eight boundaries. Yadav trapped him before the wicket and finished with four wickets on his return to Test cricket as well.
Manjrekar told ESPNCricinfo: “Crawley’s wicket was the turning point. If you looked at the faces of all the Indian players, they were tensed when Crawley was batting in the way he was. This is one team that I’ve seen in a long long time that is getting under the skin of the Indian team in a home series.”
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Meanwhile, England captain Ben Stokes said that the DRS technology was wrong regarding Zak Crawley’s dismissal. Speaking to reporters at the post-match press conference, he was quoted as saying by India Today: “My personal opinion is that the technology has gone wrong on this occasion. That’s where I stand on it. Technology in the game is obviously there and everyone has an understanding of the reasons it can never be 100 percent. That’s why wahave the ‘umpire’s call’, that’s why it’s in place. So when it’s not 100 percent, I don’t think it’s unfair for someone to say ‘I think the technology has got it wrong.’”
Sanjay Manjrekar, on the other hand, shared how Kuldeep Yadav controlled the run flow against England in the second Test by bowling a lot slower in the air, especially against Ollie Pope.
“Kuldeep Yadav coming in has made it a little bit easier to control the English batters because he’s a bit slow in the air. I saw a couple of reverse sweeps that were played within that straight to the fielder. When somebody is not giving you pace, you saw the trajectory is not as flat just becomes a little bit more difficult,” Sanjay Manjrekar concluded.
