One doesn’t need any statistical evidence to claim that Jasprit Bumrah is India’s greatest T20 bowler. But if one still needed some proof for greatness, Bumrah just delivered one of the best T20 World Cup spells you’ll ever witness in the India vs South Africa match in Ahmedabad. In doing so, he became the highest wicketkeeper for India in the tournament’s history.
New ball magic in Ahmedabad
Bumrah started his spell with tempting deliveries outside off, which made Aiden Markam and Quinton de Kock drive and punch the ball through the cover region. He overcompensated with a full toss, which de Kock took full toll of as he drove with authority. He knew the length wasn’t right.
Bumrah was also trying to take the ball away from de Kock. He went wide of the crease, pulled his length back, and aimed to bring the ball in. The move worked wonders. The South African wicketkeeper was stuck on the crease, neither going forward nor backward.
The ball came in enough that de Kock missed the slog, and stumps were rattled. Bumrah capped the over by coming back to round the wicket and bowled a length delivery which left Ryan Rickelton. The batter had no answers as the ball whizzed past his bat.
He targeted the stumps again, bowling straight to Dewald Brevis, who took a single. Rickelton played the last four balls of Bumrah’s opening spell. He started with an off-cutter outside leg and then two length balls outside off. On the last delivery, he bowled the cutter again; this time, Rickelton was completely deceived. He looked to guide the ball to the leg side, but the delivery came late, and he chipped it to Shivam Dube at mid-off.
Paralyses batters in the death
Returning in the 17th over, Bumrah pulled out every trick in the book. Yorkers, slower balls, bouncers, and slower bouncers, as Tristan Stubbs and Marco Jansen managed to score just 5 runs off 6 balls. South Africa had no issues facing Varun Chakaravarthy, who went for 47 runs in 4 overs, but they have no idea against Bumrah.
The pacer repeats the same in the 19th over. This time, the yorker earned him a wicket as Corbin Bosch hit the ball straight back to him, and Bumrah caught it one-handed. In the last over, he went for just 3 runs, and finished his spell with the figures of 15/3.
Most wickets for India in T20 World Cup history
- 33 – Jasprit Bumrah (22 innings)
- 32 – Arshdeep Singh (18 innings)
- 32 – Ravichandran Ashwin (24 innings)
- 29 – Hardik Pandya (26 innings)
- 22 – Ravindra Jadeja (29 innings)
