A couple of weeks ago I named Jasprit Bumrah as the best bowler of 2018. Unlike my decision to pick Bumrah's Indian teammate Virat Kohli as the best batsmen, my choice of Bumrah was more subjective and based on a variety of factors including his success across all formats and in varying conditions throughout the year. Still, given that I made that call prior to India playing Australia in the Boxing Day Test there was the risk that Bumrah could be out-performed by one his Australian fast bowling peers and in doing so make my choice look fairly foolish. Instead, he fully vindicated the decision and more by bowling one of the best balls as part of a brilliant over and spell in general to help hand India a 2-1 lead in Australia which they now look unlikely to surrender. Given India's propensity in recent years to fall apart in overseas tours then would it also be too much to claim that this one moment of cricketing brilliance could signify a sea-change in regards to their Test Match fortunes abroad?
The Over itself
In Test Match cricket the very best bowlers are thinking multiple steps ahead of the game at all times. They don't just bowl one delivery and hope that it will get the batsman out, return to their mark and try something similar next time around. At this level of the game, you have to out-think your opponent as much as out cricket them. Bumrah bowled the first 5 balls of his over as fast, away swingers from the left-handed Shaun Marsh dragging him across his crease and setting him up beautifully for the final ball of the over, a slower ball inswinger that trapped him plumb in front.
It seems easy to sit here, analysing the game and think that Marsh should have done better with the slow looping delivery that hit him on the toe but it is also worth considering just how quickly a batsman has to react to every ball that is bowled by a guy as fast as Jasprit Bumrah.
A ball bowled at 140 kph (Bumrah's first 5 balls were bowled at between 139 and 145kph) travels at 38.89 meters per second (140000m / 3600 seconds). A cricket wicket is 22 yards in length (just over 20m). If Bumrah bowls a full pace delivery that travels towards Marsh at 39 metres per second it means that Marsh has about half a second (20m / 38.89mps) to react and play the correct shot. Of course, the reality of the situation is that even the best batsmen who have far superior hand-eye coordination than us mere mortals can't actually process that much information and make the relevant movements within that tiny amount of time. Instead, they are relying on a certain amount of prediction as well as muscle memory to ensure they are in the correct position to play the ball on its merit. By the time Bumrah bowled that slower inswinging delivery, Shaun Marsh's brain and entire body had been conditioned to into thinking that it would be another 140kph away swinger. I think his reaction to the delivery tells the story of just how flummoxed he was by the ball that eventually claimed his wicket.
The Performance in General
That the delivery was the final ball before lunch could lead us to make several conclusions. Firstly was Shaun Marsh fully switched on to the situation or had his mind wandered a little onto whether he was going to have the fish or the chicken? Secondly, perhaps it was the very fact that it was the last ball of the last over before lunch that encouraged Bumrah to take a bit of a punt and try something out of the box. After all, it's not unusual in 4 or 5 day cricket match to see captains throw the ball to a part-time bowler in the hope that they might be able to conjure up a bit of magic and burgle a wicket just before the break so why wouldn't a bowler of Bumrah's pedigree also think of doing something a bit different when there was nothing to lose.
However, for my part, I like to think that this was just a moment of both brilliant thinking as well as superb execution on the part of Bumrah and to some extent, his teammate and Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma who apparently made the suggestion to bowl the slower ball while standing at mid-off. It was a game-changing moment in the kind of situation that India had missed out on all too often this year during their tours of South Africa and England where they had undoubtedly been competitive but ultimately ended those series as the losers. In a game that up until that point was moving at something of a snail's pace a draw still looked like a real possibility until Bumrah broke through either side of the interval to put India very much in the driver's seat.
It's also worth considering that Bumrah ended the innings with figures of 6-36 on a pitch that the likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins had laboured for the best part of 2 days on just to claim that many Indian wickets between them. While Marsh was undone by the trickery of a slower ball, opening batsman Marcus Harris was worked over by some short-pitched bowling, the like of which is usually reserved for the visiting teams to the MCG. Bumrah then followed that up with a searing fast and full delivery that beat Travis Head's defences all ends up before going on to snare the wicket of Aussie captain Tim Paine who tried to resist as best he could. It was an inspirational performance from Bumrah and one worthy of winning his side the match and retain the Border-Gavashkar Trophy.
Where does Bumrah's performance rank in the history of cricket?
3 performances from the annals of cricketing history spring to mind when trying to rank Bumrah's performance.
Firstly, although this game was before my time, Michael Holdings legendary performance against England at the Oval in 1976 offers itself for comparison when considering a fast bowling effort that turned a match in his side's favour on a previously batsmen-friendly wicket. You can see from the colour of the grass in the outfield that 1976 was one of the hottest on record in the UK and as such by August of that year, the already flat surface of the Oval offered little in the way of lateral movement with Holding having to resort to pure pace in order to take 14 wickets in the match and help his side to a 3-0 series victory.
Secondly, in terms of an over that helped change a game, the one bowled by Andrew Flintoff at Edgbaston in 2005 against the Aussies comes to mind. This is arguably one of the greatest overs ever bowled and to see the Australian captain and one of the best batsmen in the world at that time, Ricky Ponting hoping around his crease fighting for survival before ultimately succumbing to the irresistible Flintoff is in my mind one of the greatest pieces of sporting action ever seen. Anyone who thinks cricket is a dull game should consider watching the highlights of this over with the volume turned up to the max. I was at this game in 2005 and I can tell you the atmosphere (as it was for the entire series) was electric!
And then another one from the very same game! This time a slower ball from Steve Harmison to bowl Michael Clarke late on the 3rd day and swing the match once more in England's favour. I don't think I'd ever seen Harmi bowl a slower ball prior to or even after this one. Quit while you're ahead was obviously the big Geordie's philosophy but just watch his celebration after he takes the wicket and you can see how big a moment this was for him and the team - pure sporting theatre!
Maybe Bumrah's performance isn't quite in the Pantheon of these 3 cricketing heroes but it was certainly one to be savoured and at the age of 25, Bumrah has plenty more opportunities to create spectacular sporting memories like his dismissal of Marsh and dismantling of the Aussie batting line-up.
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