Ahmedabad: Twenty-four hours before the game against South Africa, Jasprit Bumrah practiced yorkers at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Slowly, deliberately, seeking perfection. This was when the rest of the team was going through their own routines at the main stadium in Ahmedabad before facing South Africa.
Bumrah does not usually turn up for practice a day before the match. So this was his own curated training session, with very few watching, setting up the stump-shattering show for the world to watch on Sunday.
It was quite special to see Bumrah spend an extended session doing spot bowling. Power-hitters spend time range-hitting but this was like watching a surgeon wield the scalpel.
As it turned out, none of Bumrah’s three scalps in India’s 76-run defeat came from yorkers, but the fear of the ace paceman’s toe-crusher does half the damage.
As the story goes, Bumrah, even when young, never confined himself to convention. Not too far from where he held stage in Motera in front of 81,000 people, Bumrah would run in with his whippy action and short run-up, generating awkward pace in the bylanes of Vastrapur. What he wouldn’t do as a young turk was mix his pace too much.
That’s an art he has mastered on the road in international cricket and the IPL. One such specimen came in the 4th over. Ryan Rickelton would have faced plenty of Bumrah in the Mumbai Indians batting nets. The South African left-hander couldn’t separate a Bumrah slower one from his traditional pace-on missile.
Set up just like the best slower balls are, Rickleton had faced a back-of-the-length delivery. He knew the next ball could be different. But it could be on his nose or toes too. When the mind has so many things to process and is under constant score board pressure to find boundaries in the Powerplay, things get that much harder. As Bumrah flicked his wrist and delivered a slower ball, all in motion, with the same awkward action, a miscued Rickelton drive landed in the hands of Shivam Dube at mid-off.
As Rickleton trudged back to the pavilion, he was left wondering what if he chose to be more circumspect against India’s main pacer. There have been several batters before.
Bumrah has an entire range of slower balls, not just the conventional off-cutter. His dipping slower ball that seems to arrest time and changes direction late. The regular set-up proved sufficient against the South African opener.
Just the over before, the second of the innings, Bumrah had cleaned up Quinton de Kock with a nip backer to which he was late; this time beaten for pace and deviation.
The other thing about Bumrah, he can do so many things in a 24-ball spell that the captain has to choose when to use him best. Had India given him another over, they might have restricted South Africa more. But with the ball doing things in the air, Suryakumar Yadav decided to use up two of his overs in the Powerplay.
With South Africa having wrested the initiative back in the middle overs, Bumrah returned to bowl two miserly overs. That’s when those disciplined work at the nets, all by himself would come in handy. South Africa could not get any of Bumrah’s yorkers away as he delivered two overs conceding only 8 runs. One attempted yorker wasn’t picture perfect, but one so close to being perfect that Corbin Bosch handed a return catch back to the bowler, in trying to dig it out.
By the time Bumrah was done, his figures read 4-0-15-3. Other than his pace partner Arshdeep Singh, most of the other bowlers went for 11s and 16s-an-over.
The bowling genius kept India in the contest the best he could. On a day India’s spinners had no impact on the match, their leading fast bowler held his end of the bargain.
