‘Poora Khol Diye Pasha!’Owaisi Praises Siraj After Match-Winning Asia Cup Performance
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday extended a celebratory shout-out to Indian fast bowler Mohammed Siraj, hailing his pivotal role in India’s victory in the fifth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. India clinched a stunning six-run win at The Oval, leveling the series, with Siraj delivering a match-winning performance.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Owaisi, who is a Member of Parliament from Hyderabad, Siraj’s hometown, posted, “Always a winner @mdsirajofficial! As we say in Hyderabadi, poora khol diye Pasha!” The post included a video of Siraj’s celebration after securing the win.
Siraj proved instrumental in India’s triumph, taking three crucial wickets within an hour to complete his fifth five-wicket haul in Test cricket. Declared the Man of the Match in the final Test, the pacer finished the five-match series with an impressive 23 wickets.
His decisive fifth wicket, which sealed the Test victory against England, came a day after a dropped catch of Harry Brook, who was batting on 19 at the time and went on to score a century. Reflecting on the dropped catch, Siraj admitted he thought the match had “slipped away.” “If he had got yesterday, the match would have looked completely different. I thought about it as it was a game-changing moment, but the way we fought back was commendable,” he stated.
In a post-match conversation with teammate Cheteshwar Pujara, Siraj revealed his mindset before the final day. “When I woke up this morning, I said to myself, I will change the game and googled an emoji of ‘believe’ and put it on my wallpaper,” he shared. Siraj attributed his success to a disciplined bowling strategy. “My plan was to consistently hit the line and length outside off-stump,” he explained, adding that veering from this strategy could have eased pressure on the English batsmen. “So I focused on maintaining that consistent line and length,” he concluded.
