ENG vs IND | Twitter feels sorry for Jamie Smith as Archer sends him on adventure with new ball

‌With England restricting India to 264/4 after 83 overs at the end of the first day’s play in the fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester, the second new ball had a key role to play. And rightly, captain Ben Stokes took the new cherry in the second ball of the day with Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer looking to make the most of the overcast conditions.

Archer struck with his fifth ball of the day, inducing an edge from Ravindra Jadeja with the ball swinging away late from the batter. But Shardul Thakur was still there fighting it out against the new ball duo, scoring two fours off Woakes in the next over.

The Rajasthan Royals pacer, at times, looked erratic too, with wicketkeeper Jamie Smith bearing the brunt behind the stumps. After starting the 91st over with a good length delivery that swung into Shardul, Archer went off the radar. He sent down a wide short delivery outside off stump in the next ball, with Smith diving to his right to collect the ball in front of first slip.

The next ball was down leg with Smith diving into action again, this time to his left to stop the swinging Dukes cherry. But Acher was not done yet, as he surprised everyone a ball later, pitching it short, looking to intimidate Shardul with a bouncer. But the plan went awfully wrong as the ball was too short and too wide, missing the batter by a mile.

Even Smith gave up on his chances of catching the ball after leaping to his right, as the cherry flew after touching his right glove with leg slip Ollie Pope also looking on. The pacer could not believe what had just happened as he walked back to his mark, looking at his hands with a sheepish smile.

Twitter felt sorry for Smith, who was being sent on an adventure by Archer with the second new ball.