Indian fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who now seems more confident to bowl in limited-over cricket, displayed yet another daring-do with the white ball on Thursday when he claimed three wickets while conceding just nine runs.
With this, the 27-year-old spearhead from Meerut became the first Indian bowler to claim three or more wickets, twice in his career, while conceding less than 10 runs in an ODI match.
“Yes, I had planned to bowl like that,” Bhuvneshwar said in the post-match conference when someone asked him about his spell.
“As soon as I bowled the first ball, I knew there was some swing on offer. To Warner, I knew outswingers can work against him. Pitching it on the offstump and getting it to shape away,” he added.
Bhuvneshwar struck early for the hosts and took the scalp of both the Aussie openers within first five overs of the game. David Warner and Hilton Cartwright were sent back to pavilion cheaply and Australia appeared struggling at 9/2 in 4.5 overs.
Australian tail-ender Kane Richardson was the third victim of Bhuvneshwar, who bowled two maiden overs in Kolkata.
The Uttar Pradesh-hailed cricketer took a trip down memory lane and recalled his debut match.
“When I first came into the side, I needed conditions favouring swing bowling to flourish. A year after making my debut, I wanted to increase my pace, but I had no clue how to go about that,” Bhuvneshwar said.
Also read: How is Kuldeep Yadav’s hat-trick different than Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma’s?
The right-arm medium pacer has represented India in 109 international matches so far, claiming 141 wickets with his career-best spell of 6/82 in Tests.
Bhuvneshwar attributed his strength and conditioning coach Shankar Basu for his recent success in pace and swing.
“Shankar Basu introduced me to a different type of training that eventually helped me increase my pace. That, in turn, went on to help me bowl at the death too.”
In the first half, India were seen in troubled waters as they were all-out for 252 runs. Virat Kohli (92) and Ajinkya Rahane (55) were the only Indian batsmen with decent knocks in the end.
Bhuvneshwar revealed despite having a small total to defend, there wasn’t much disappointment in the team’s dressing room.
“It was obviously not a big total. But still, there was no bad mood in the dressing room at the halfway mark. No one was really upset with the performance. We believe in each other, and that makes a big difference.
“We kept talking about taking wickets at regular intervals. If you get those regular wickets in the middle overs, it always helps, irrespective of the runs on board,” the paceman continued.
India won the second ODI by 50 runs to go up 2-0 in the five-match series. Next, they will take on Australia in the third ODI at Holkar Stadium, Indore on Sunday.
(With inputs from agencies)