Jasprit Bumrah denied that India squandered a good position after Sam Curran's half-century, which helped England post a total of 246 on the opening day of the fourth Test. "You can't take five-six wickets every session," he said after Thursday's play at the Ageas Bowl.
"They played well too, they built a good partnership -- Sam Curran and Moeen Ali. As the day progressed, the wicket was slowing down. As the ball got older, it stopped swinging a lot and there was less seam movement as well."
Bumrah was pleased with the state of the game. "If you'd told us in the morning that we'd get them out for 250, we'd have taken that any day. We had them 86 for six but you can't be too greedy and expect too much," he said.
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The Gujarat pacer was surprised by how much the ball had swung and seamed. His delivery to dismiss Keaton Jennings was nothing special, he felt. "That's not a new ball. I bowled that to Chris Gayle in the World T20 semifinal as well. I never get happy that I've got all the deliveries. I want to keep on improving and add new ones to my armoury," Bumrah said.
Curran felt conditions had been tough for batting, but credited India's bowlers. "It swung massively throughout the day. Even when I was in my 30s, it was swinging around consistently when the ball was 65 overs old. That surprised us a little bit – how much it swung, and how much it did off the wicket. There were some very good balls in there too, to a lot of the top order. We managed to get 246 – which from 86 for six looks a decent score now," he said.
Curran had been left out of the side for the third Test but he denied he was trying to prove a point. "I was just playing the way I do, naturally and freely and with no fear," he said. "I was disappointed, but at the same time took it as a positive. You can’t really leave out someone who's got a hundred (Chris Woakes)."
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