Watch: Kuldeep Yadav castles Zak Crawley with a beauty as ball lands outside off and hits leg stump

Continuing his stunning start in the ongoing fifth Test between India and England in Dharamsala, Kuldeep Yadav clean bowled in-form Zak Crawley with a beauty to put the hosts on top. Batting first after winning the toss, England were off to a good start as Crawley and Ben Duckett added 64 runs for the first wicket.

Kuldeep Yadav provided India with the breakthrough by dismissing Duckett for 27 in his very first over of the game. Duckett went for a big shot but failed to read the googly and ended up miscuing his shot towards off-stump where Shubman Gill took a fine diving catch while running backward.

Crawley and Ollie Pope quickly steadied the ship and took England’s score to 100 runs. The visitors were looking set to end the first session of the Test on top but Kuldeep Yadav struck again and dismissed Pope at the stroke of lunch.

He got the breakthrough with the googly once again as his delivery completely outfoxed Pope before the England batter was stumped by Dhruv Jurel.

Kuldeep Yadav dismisses Zak Crawley:

Crawley and Joe Root began the proceedings with the bat in the second session. The England opener had reached his fifty in the first session itself and was looking in good touch before Kuldeep Yadav ended his stay at the crease with a beauty.

With Crawley in good touch, India needed something special to send him back and the moment of brilliance was provided by the chinaman spinner. The right-handed batsman went for a booming cover drive to a delivery that was well outside off stump but was completely beaten. The ball passed through the bat and pad before going on to hit the leg stump.

Watch:

Can watch this on repeat. Drift drags Crawley’s bat wider for that attempted drive—allowing Kuldeep to spin it through the gate. Brilliant! pic.twitter.com/xcksA0NE7k

— Amar Sohal (@sohalamarsingh) March 7, 2024

Crawley departed after scoring 79 runs off 108 balls with the help of 11 fours and one six. With 407 runs in nine innings, Crawley is England’s second-highest run-scorer in the series. Overall, he is the second-highest run-scorer in the series behind India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal who has scored a staggering 655 runs so far.

Talking about the game, England were on 147 for 3 at the time of writing this report with Root and Jonny Bairstow batting. Root was batting on 19 while Bairstow, who is playing his 100th Test, was unbeaten on 8.