After orchestrating India’s spellbinding comeback triumph over Pakistan, India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah singled out two key moments of his bowling performance that helped the men-in-blue cruise home by six runs in the nail-biting low-scoring thriller of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium.
Bumrah finished with impressive figures of 3 for 14 from his four overs, bowling 15 dot balls as Pakistan capitulated in their chase of 120 to find themselves in serious danger of an early exit.
Pakistan had themselves to blame for squandering a brilliant effort from their bowling unit, and a decent start by the openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan moving to 26 for no loss in the fifth over of their innings before the rest of the batting department flopped against a disciplined Indian attack.
India went in for the defence of 119 with a change in strategy with Bumrah coming in as the first change, instead of opening the bowling, and the ploy worked wonders as the seasoned campaigner kept bowling the unhittable line – back of a length delivery – and by doing it consistently he managed to push Pakistan to a corner, and eventually forcing them to panic.
Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj provided the Pakistan openers a cushion early on, making them believe that the chase won’t last 20 overs. However, once Bumrah arrived and claimed the all important wicket of Babar for 13, edging to Suryakumar Yadav, the signal was clear for the Pakistan camp that the chase was perhaps more difficult than first thought.
Rizwan meanwhile toiled, moving into the thirties in spite of losing Usman Khan and Fakhar Zaman at the other end. And with Rizwan, the set batter in the middle, Pakistan were in no trouble with the side needing 40 runs off just 36 balls, and with seven wickets in hand in their pursuit of 120.
At that point, the forecasters gave Pakistan a 93 percent chance until Bumrah was redeployed in what looked to be India’s last hope, and the impact was immediate. His first delivery beat Rizwan’s swing to hit timber, and that was the twist in the tale. This was the crack that would cause the collapse, as Bumrah later reflected on the two dismissals as the key.
“I think the first wicket was very important as well to set the base because then you start adding pressure. If they get off to a good start on this wicket, because we didn’t have a lot of runs on the board, then the pressure keeps on rising on us,” Bumrah began, reflecting on his impact on the result.
“And then that third over of mine, that was a crucial stage of that situation, the game would have been over if that would have gone Pakistan’s favour.”
“So that was also a crucial stage. Everybody came in and they were trying to execute what they wanted to, and they were able to do that. I think all of it’s a combination of all those things that really helped us,” he added.
Bumrah went on to also claim the wicket of Iftikhar Ahmed, before Arshdeep Singh (1/31) closed out the win with a calm final over, taking the wicket of Imad Wasim and holding off a late challenge from Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi.
The win puts India top of Group A, holding the net run-rate tiebreaker over fellow undefeated team USA, who shocked Pakistan in Dallas on June 6. India will next take on the tournament co-hosts USA on Wednesday.
Pakistan, meanwhile remain winless and would need big victories over Canada and Ireland, among other results in the group going their way to progress to the next round of the competition.
Bumrah also paid rich tributes to the fellow members of the bowling unit, with no weak link giving their opposition a chance to wriggle out of trouble. Hardik Pandya (2/24) and Axar Patel (1/11) were the other unsung heroes contributing to India’s cause in the thriller.
“We as a bowling unit take a lot of pride in our bowling and we work very hard to develop more skills and try to help the team as much as we can. So we’re very happy that we were able to do it in this game,” he said.
“We as a unit are very calm and very clear on what we want. We were able to contribute and create that pressure and then we were able to get the win. Not at any stage did I feel that the panic had spread in the team, (or) we were looking too far ahead so that’s a really positive sign for us,” the 30-year-old said.
Bumrah’s mastery carved out a piece of history: 119 is the joint-lowest total ever defended in men’s T20 World Cups.