Arms outstretched, his lips twirling into a wry smile and body oozing out positive vibes, Jasprit Bumrah let out his trademark celebration one more time in this World Cup.
It was as if to suggest that when in trouble, it’s best to turn to him. Pakistan had been threatening to close in on the 300-mark with some sensible batting from Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.
At 155/2, India were staring down the barrel. Then Babar dragged Mohammed Siraj’s innocuous delivery on to the stumps in an attempt to late cut.
It was Kuldeep Yadav’s turn to pounce on the opportunity with two quick strikes within a space of four deliveries. The trigger had been pulled.
Kuldeep has always been threatening in the middle overs and it showed on Saturday too. There was not much help for the spinners and he needed to be crafty and use imagination to extract advantage from the wicket.
He almost had Babar dismissed a few overs earlier. Sensing that Kuldeep’s control was making it difficult for him to play in front of the wicket, Babar tried the sweep and the switch hits.
But Kuldeep was not to be pinned down. He flattened the trajectory and the Pakistan captain was hit on the pad going for the sweep. Babar survived by virtue of the umpire’s call following a review.
Rohit Sharma took over the batting reins, scoring a 63-ball 86, as the team romped home to a seven-wicket win at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad, on Saturday. PTI photo
Siraj finally removed Babar five overs later and Pakistan’s hopes hinged on Rizwan, who had rescued them from almost similar circumstances in their previous match against Sri Lanka. But then he didn’t have to reckon with a Bumrah.
Rohit Sharma was always switched on as a captain on the field. He brought back Bumrah right after Kuldeep had removed Saud Shakeel and cleaned up Iftikhar Ahmed.
And Bumrah delivered immediately with the last ball of the 34th over. The slower delivery bowled with a cross seam was the perfect off cutter which moved into the right-handed Rizwan, gripping off the surface to dislodge the off stump. Rizwan was already into his shot to run it down to the off side but was startled by the slow pace and the movement.
There was no great show of emotion from Bumrah though. He has always had that “been there, done that” expression written all over his face. In his next over, Bumrah produced another unplayable delivery to clean up Shadab Khan. The two deliveries were reminiscent of Wasim Akram’s back-to-back dismissals of Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis in the 1992 World Cup final.
Bumrah’s celebration always has a resemblance to the Swedish star footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whom he idolises.
He has always been a non-conformist, never picking up a fight even when trolled on social media. It was business as usual for Bumrah on the big-match day too.
