When Jasprit Bumrah bowls, things tend to happen more often than not. That was the case this evening too when Dean Elgar and Rassie Van Der Dussen were batting well and had looked set before a Bumrah special got India the crucial breakthrough.
It was the 37th over of the innings and Bumrah had come for his third spell. The Indian pacer first teased the set Rassie with two deliveries leaving him, the fourth delivery was a length ball bowled from wide of his crease that cut back in sharply. The batsman thought he had covered his stumps and shouldered arms, but the ball knocked the top of the off stump leaving the batter stunned. It was such a peach of a delivery that it could have had any batter.
Time and again Bumrah has done this for his captain Virat Kohli and team India and has a habit of breaking partnerships, be it Tests or white-ball format.
Then his trademark yorker towards the fag end to dismiss nightwatchman Keshav Maharaj left him bamboozled. Bumrah’s yorkers so lethal it can even put a top-order batter in trouble.
In the fourth Test against England on a flat Oval pitch, England were set to save the game with just two wickets by lunch, but Bumrah had other plans. He knocked off Olie Pope and Jonny Bairstow in a space four deliveries to give India the belief and the rest is history. England collapsed from 141 for 2 in 61 overs to be bowled out for 210 in 92 overs. He might have taken just two wickets in that game but those two deliveries were special and it set the cat among the pigeons.
Bumrah had made his Test debut against South Africa in 2018 and has been Kohli’s go to man since. He has already picked up more than 100 wickets in just 24 matches at an average of just 22. With his magical delivery, Bumrah has once again given team India the belief that they can pull off another overseas victory. The pacer is not tall and we’ll built with broad shoulders like other fast bowlers, but he has got the speed and the guile to knock off any player on any wicket.
When Bumrah had hurt his ankle in the first innings and the returned to bowl, Kohli addressed him as the rock. There is no doubt that this rock of India goes about his job without make much noise.
