Despite growing up in a country blessed with noble batsmen and crafty spinners, Jasprit Bumrah was only interested in fast bowling. Not just any type of fast bowling. Bumrah, a TV fan as a child, said before the show began that he was “obsessed” with the fast guys who tumbled tree stumps out of the ground with the yorkers.
There were suspicions that Bumrah walked like a lumberjack to Ollie Pope when 1.45pm local time hit the second day of the second Test in Visakhapatnam ’s tree stump, it was suspected that some others might have been converted. The middle stump jagged to the left, the leg stump flew to the right, leaving only the stump standing alone. Meanwhile, Pope’s feet were briefly in a different zip code.
It was the highlight of the day’s bail-bombing as Bumrah turned the tide firmly in India’s favour. At the end of the game, the home team batted again and extended their lead by 143 runs in the first innings by a further 28 runs without conceding any runs. Bumrah stood up in the dressing room ready for TV coverage, his famous smile still beaming, as England roared to 253 for 6 for 45 in 15.5 overs.
Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist spinner with a Harry Houdini hairdo who has sealed England’s bright start, might like to say something here – — Ben Duckett fell off his shoulder at a stupid moment — and ended up with a 71-point three. In the absence of Ravindra Jadeja, Yadav’s series of low-slung swerving deliveries from that rare angle was certainly the difference as the visitors were devastated.
But there was none of the unorthodoxy that usurped “Bumrah” as India’s headliner, that whipping action that had the ball snaking on either side of the tea and lacking any known antivenom. It was Bumrah’s second five-wicket haul in the sixth Test at home, the best of which – although not as jaw-dropping as Pope’s death – being the work of Joe Root, who ultimately Slipping five points with a crafty bite.
Before all this happened, England had been feeling pretty good about life. Jimmy Anderson took out India’s last four wickets crisply before lunch, with Ravichandran Ashin producing some from his non-striker position Temper, with three-digit relief in 47 games. Yashasvi Jaiswal turned his overnight score of 179 into a scintillating 209 but India, 336 for six, made a total of 396, with many wondering if they were touch lights.
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That only deepened as the visitors raced to 110 for 22 in the afternoon drinks, with Zak Crawley hitting a series of straight drives and two sweeping sixes Scored 76 points. But when he deflected Axar Patel’s third delivery to backward point, Root emerged and the ball started late into the seam of the less threatening Mukesh Kumar, Sharma’s fate He whistled to Bumrah like a wolf.
