Eng vs Ind: Bumrah's spell was real turning point of game, believes Root

London [UK], September 6 (ANI): England captain Joe Root stated that Jasprit Bumrah's spell was the real turning point of the game after the hosts lost on the last day of the fourth Test at the Kennington Oval on Monday by 157 runs against India.
Indian bowlers delivered big time on the last day of the fourth Test at the Kennington Oval on Monday as the genius of mercurial Jasprit Bumrah, and all-around performance by Shardul Thakur in the match helped visitors in defeating England by 157 runs to gain a 2-1 in the five-match series. This is also India's first win in Oval in 50 years.
"It's frustrating, thought we'll get something from the game today, we had an opportunity of winning a Test match. The opening partnership was outstanding, credit to India, they got the ball to reverse I thought Bumrah's spell was the real turning point of the game. From our side, we'll have to look at other areas where we missed opportunities, maybe we should have made more of an advantage with the first-innings lead and should have taken the chances that were offered," Joe Root told Sky Sports in the post-match presentation.
With the conditions good enough for batting, England openers got the hosts off to a decent start, with both scoring fifties, however, Shardul came into the attack and got rid of Burns in his first over of day 5.
Shardul Thakur who was part of the Indian quartet in scoring more than 50 runs in the second innings, again dazzled as he sent back Joe Root to the pavilion. Hosts were still in the game until just after lunch on Day 5 when Jasprit Bumrah produced a glorious spell to give India a real shot at victory.
"We always look to get better, he's a superb bowler and at times we need to be realistic and accept that he bowled really well, that was world-class bowling. Have to manage better if we're in a similar situation in the near future, especially our game against reverse swing. Whenever we lose a game, we can always look back at the toss, we can always think about a few things and the way it happened, but at the end of the day, we need to be ruthless, should have got more than a 100-run lead."
"We needed that big hundreds, big partnerships - we need to play good cricket right around in Old Trafford, can't get complacent and get those big runs which sets up the game, which we did a week ago (in Headingley). You can pick out individuals, but need to work collectively as a batting group. Having got starts, you have to make those 20-30 runs count."
"Yesterday was a difficult day, some difficult chances (on Burns's drop at slip), it's very difficult at times, we need to know which ones to go to and keep taking our chances. It's not about the lack of effort, not about the lack of work, we just need to keep raising our slip catching standards. Woody is coming good, that's promising. It's been frustrating with the number of injuries that we have to contend with, but we can't get away with that. We'll have one big push going ahead at OT, injuries are something we need to manage, the guys have been excellent, they'll go out and play next week in Old Trafford and I'm proud of their effort." (ANI)