Jasprit Bumrah, the current World No 1 fast bowler of our times, completed the job that he had begun in England’s first innings as India weathered a predictably ferocious fourth-innings challenge from a team that never knows when it is beaten, to close out a 106-run victory in Visakhapatnam and square an enthralling series at 1-1 with three Tests to come.
Jasprit Bumrah‘s figures of 3 for 46 in 17.2 overs were less spectacular than his first-innings six-for, but the timing of his breakthroughs was everything on a fraught fourth day – in particular, his priceless extraction of Jonny Bairstow on the stroke of lunch, a dismissal that capped a five-wicket session for India and left England’s chase with too far to run, having busted out of the blocks with now typical gusto.
Sensational Jasprit Bumrah’s masterclass gave India series levelling victory at Vizag.
A sensational Jasprit Bumrah produced a masterclass with the old ball to pick up his best Test figures in India and bowl England out for 253, giving India the upper-hand at the end of the second day at Vizag. Bumrah’s 6/45 all came with the ball starting to reverse swing. He turned the game around since then to keep England from pushing ahead. The visitors had started well with opener Zak Crawley’s quickfire 76, which included four fours in an over off Bumrah with the new ball.
After a 59-run opening stand, Kuldeep Yadav had Ben Duckett caught at silly point with some extra bounce coming into play. But Crawley, bringing his long reach into play, resorted to counterattacking. He slog swept a six and then drove confidently down the track as well to put Ashwin off and brought up a well-deserved fifty in quick time.
Just as he was threatening to make it a lot worse for India, a bowling change worked wonders with Axar Patel striking almost immediately, getting the aggressive Crawley to miscue a big hit. Shreyas Iyer, running behind, took a good catch on the offside.
After that it was all Bumrah, as the ball began to move around a touch. He first worked over Joe Root and had him nicking to first slip. That sequence of balls was bettered soon after as he thundered a 141.7 kph yorker past a well-set Ollie Pope to splatter the stumps. It was the third wicket lost for 22 runs for England before Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes saw off the period of play before Tea.
But just as another stand was budding, Bumrah came back after the break to have Bairstow caught well at slip by Shubman Gill. In this period, he had some help from the other end with Kuldeep Yadav spinning one past Ben Foakes’ defence and having Rehan Ahmed caught at midwicket, with Gill pouching another sharp chance.
At 182/7, England were looking down and out before Stokes combined with Tom Hartley to counterattack the spinners. The duo added 47 in quick time forcing Rohit Sharma to turn towards Bumrah again.
The pacer delivered once again leaving Stokes bemused with one skidding through before Hartley went swinging and edging to give Gill his fourth catch of the innings. He wrapped it up by trapping James Anderson LBW to finish with figures of 6/45, to cap off an innings where he became the fastest Indian bowler to 150 Test wickets. Rohit and Jaiswal saw off the small period before Stumps unscathed.
That Bumrah spell offset some of India’s mistakes with the bat in the first innings that had seen them being bowled out below 400. At the start of the day, Yashaswi Jaiswal scored more than half of India’s first innings but England managed to chip away at the other end to bowl them out for just 396.
If this spell in the first innings was not enough when the ball started reversing on docile Day 4 pitch in the afternoon, Jasprit Bumrah gave another masterclass to English batters who in pursuit of 399 lost their way to masterclass bowling from this witty Indian bowler prime example being Ben Foakes dismissal on a slower ball with change in pace having the batter caught and bowled ending the partnership that to some extent threatened India’s winning chances only to make India win a test match and draw level the series 1-1 with his 9 wicket overhaul.
In addition to his 9 wicket haul at Vizag, Jasprit Bumrah has also grabbed 6 wickets in the first test which India lost at Hyderabad and with 15 wickets stands highest wicket taker in the series till date.
This knack of picking wickets on any kind of surfaces from this Indian sensation has garnered praises from all the experts across the globe. Former South African speedster Dale Steyn is super impressed with Jasprit Bumrah’s heroics with the ball and has showered praises on his temperament to take wickets in any given conditions.
Former South African pacer Dale Steyn lauds sensational Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah’s bowling in the first 2 tests vs England.
South Africa legend Dale Steyn hailed Jasprit Bumrah for taking the pitch out of the equation and picking up wickets at will on flat Indian tracks. A terrific all-conditions bowler, Steyn was himself among the few pacers who found success in India, evidenced by his incredible average of 21.38 in six Tests.
Jasprit Bumrah has been in sparkling form across formats since his return from injury last year. In the ongoing England Test series, the 30-year-old leads all bowlers with 15 wickets at an average of 10.66 in two games.
Speaking to the media on the eve of the SA20 final, Steyn was impressed by Bumrah’s rare ability to bowl wicket-taking yorkers and take wickets on all conditions.
“All round he’s a fantastic bowler. And it’s no surprise with his skiddy kind of action that he’s got that. He takes wickets on those docile pitches, so he’s fantastic. I don’t think there’s any Test bowlers right now who are able to run in and bowl essentially wicket-taking yorkers. To take wickets in Test matches, there are probably a handful of guys who could do that. Trent Boult was one of that, Mitchell Starc maybe. And obviously, Bumrah,” said Steyn.
He added :
“I remember saying ages back that a good yorker bowled in India or South Africa or Australia remains a good yorker because you take the surface out of it, doesn’t matter where you bowled it. You take the pitch away and I think that’s one thing that he’s done really well.”
After grabbing six wickets in India’s defeat in the series opener against England, Bumrah produced a Player of the Match performance in the second Test. The champion bowler picked up nine wickets, including a six-wicket haul in the first innings to help India level the series. It ascended Bumrah to the top spot in the latest ICC Test bowlers rankings.
India wont miss Jasprit Bumrah even if he is rested exclaims Dale Steyn.
Dale Steyn further lauded the depth in the Indian pace-bowling ranks to produce impressive performances in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence. Despite his remarkable numbers, Bumrah has found himself at the wrong end of the stick regarding fitness. However, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami, among others, have taken the mantle to step up and deliver the goods.
“Being an Indian player, there’s going to be a lot of workload. There’s a lot of cricket that India plays, they’re one of the highly-sought after teams in the world. It seems like India don’t really miss him because the step-in bowlers are up to the standard, and it’s a great credit to the Indian cricket,” said Steyn.
Steyn highlighted how becoming a good Test bowler will help develop the required skills in T20s.
“I think good Test bowlers make good T20 bowlers. They have good skill in terms of like when to use a change of pace, when to use this slow ball, when to use their bouncer. I’m hoping that a lot of bowlers will get caught on to that and realize that the more red ball cricket that they play, the better shorter format bowlers they will become,” concluded Steyn.
During the second England Test, Bumrah became the fastest Indian pacer to reach 150 Test wickets. He is also one of only two Indian cricketers, with Virat Kohli, to have achieved the No.1 spot in the ICC rankings in all three formats. India is drawn level with England 1-1 and would believe Jasprit Bumrah if given rest due to workload management for the 3rd test would inspire the fast Indian bowlers to perform well by his performances in the previous matches.