The sight of a fast bowler dismantling the batsman’s stumps is one of the best sights in cricket. Though, India due to a lack of great fast bowlers over the years, have not always been at the happier end of it, they are righting a few wrongs in the ongoing series against England, especially in the second Test.

Alastair Cook was bowled by Mohammed Shami on Friday. Such was the delivery that the England skipper was literally stunned at the end of it all. (video above)

Bowling close to 90 miles per hour with near perfect length and line, Shami had Cook’s number from the first over itself. In Shami’s second over, after two tight deliveries, he struck the woodwork. “Struck” would be an understatement, he broke Cook’s off-stump into half. Kohli’s expression said it all.

Then, on the third day, it was time for Shami’s pace-bowling partner, Umesh Yadav to step up. Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow were just about doing some damage control on the third day as they took England out of a dreadful 103/5. The two had put put on a 110-run partnership and Stokes and Bairstow looked dangerous.

And then Yadav took over. A toe-crushing, reverse-swinging yorker is unplayable. And Bairstow, despite a battling 53, had no answer. He fell all around himself as the ball nipped through his defences and uprooted the leg stump.

Play

No, the stumps were not broken, just dismantled. But, for Indian fans accustomed to see their batsmen being bowled in similar fashion by opposition pace bowlers, this was a sight for sore eyes.