Legendary Australia cricketer Ricky Ponting showed no mercy and slammed Mohammed Siraj for making a huge mistake in the field, denying India the wicket of Harry Brook. After the visitors had restricted the hosts to 106/3 at one stage with the wicket of Ollie Pope, the duo of Joe Root and Harry Brook started to dominate. The latter was the aggressor among the two, scoring 11 runs in the 34th over and then smashing Prasidh Krishna for 16 runs in the very next over.
However, the Men in Blue did have a golden chance to get rid of Brook during the same over. On the first delivery, the England batter top-edged a pull shot and the ball went straight towards Siraj, who was standing on the boundary rope. Though Siraj ended up completing the catch, he failed to keep his position in check and his foot touched the boundary rope. This meant that rather than getting a wicket, India conceded six runs.
Ponting was highly critical of Siraj's mistake, highlighting how costly a miss like that can turn out to be for the visitors.
"What was he thinking? He wasn't thinking at all. He didn't have to move to take the catch, so how costly might that be? Brook is still in and reads the bowlers so well. He bats in a Test match, how you would try and read a bowler in a T20," Ponting said as quoted from Sky Sports.
Brook made India pay for the mistake
Ponting's concern came out to be true as Brook would go on to hurt India a lot as the day progressed. The batter eventually went on to complete his second hundred of the series. He also formed a massive 195-run stand with Root as both the batters piled on runs and added to India's misery.
Brook was eventually dismissed during the second session of fourth day by Akash Deep on 111 runs. The 26-year-old wrapped up the five-match assignment with 481 runs in nine innings, including two centuries and half-centuries each. Meanwhile, England wrapped up the second session of the day on 317/4 with Root unbeaten on 98 and Jacob Bethell batting on 1. They currently require 57 runs to win the match and seal the series by 3-1.