On an unusual day-one pitch in Kolkata, he bowled with ‘patience’, with a wicket ball coming along with an extra bit of something
Karthik Krishnaswamy14-Nov-20254:12
Bankable Player of the Day – Jasprit Bumrah
Is cricket a sport of percentages, or is it one of moments?Ask Jasprit Bumrah this question, and he’ll probably give you a one-word answer. Yes.There is no bowler in the world more conscious than him of the importance of percentages, no one more trusting in the process of hammering away in the good-length band, staying patient, and not going looking for wicket balls.And ten overs into the first India-South Africa Test at Eden Gardens, Bumrah’s trust in the percentages was keeping the scorecard looking sane. At the other end, Mohammed Siraj and Axar Patel had gone for 40 in five overs. At his end, Bumrah had figures of 5-2-9-0.Related
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And yet, and yet.When Bumrah finally broke South Africa’s opening partnership, did he do it with a percentages ball or a moments ball?Yes.Here again was the ball that Test-match fast bowlers bowl again and again to Test-match openers with a mix of hope and belief. Angling into the left-handed Ryan Rickelton from round the wicket, pitched on the fuller side of a good length, looking to make the batter defend, and hoping for something to happen. A bit of seam movement. A bit of unusual bounce. Percentages.Jasprit Bumrah picked up his 16th Test five-for•BCCIIn isolation, though, come on. Straightening past the outside edge, hitting the top of off stump, causing one of the largest weekday crowds that an India home Test has drawn in recent years – the official count, at the end of the day, was 36,513 – to vent the pent-up anxiety of the preceding 45 or so minutes in one cathartic roar. This was a capital M Moment.And what about the even more unplayable ball Bumrah bowled in his next over, rearing at Aiden Markram, lifting him off his feet, causing him to try, at the same time, to protect himself with his bat pull it away from the ball, with the net effect of gloving it to the keeper?This was still in that good-length band, closer to its shorter edge this time, and still delivered in informed hope, speared into the pitch in the knowledge that uneven bounce was a possibility. This was still a percentages ball.But how many fast bowlers have the tools to weaponise the percentages like Bumrah does again and again? How many can hit the pitch like he does, with more backspin than pretty much anyone else, but also, thanks to his wrist-snap, far more vertical velocity than you would assume from someone of his height?Bumrah is a percentages bowler because it’s always a good idea, but the percentages also give him so much more than they give most fast bowlers. He gets more seam movement than most, and more bounce. If there’s uneven bounce to exploit, he’s likelier than most bowlers of his height to get unusually high bounce, so when he gets one to keep low, it’s that much harder for the batter to adjust.All this meant Bumrah was an irresistible force on this unusual day-one pitch at Eden Gardens, where the fast bowlers from both sides took 8 for 61 in 32 overs from one end, and 0 for 40 in eight overs from the other. There was uneven bounce and a little bit of movement from one end, and so little of either from the other that the fast bowlers only bowled from there when they absolutely had to. Bumrah, of course, bowled all his overs from the favourable end. He has earned this right.3:22
How is Bumrah still unplayable on a dry surface?
This was, however, still Eden Gardens, so there was, in his mind, a bigger-than-usual downside to straying away from percentages.”Patience is the first lesson of Test cricket,” Bumrah said at the end of the day’s play. “You need patience if you want success in Test cricket. This is a ground where the outfield is very quick, and the wicket is hard. If you get too desperate or try to bowl magic balls, runs flow very quickly.”You have to control that temptation, build pressure, and see what the tough run-scoring options are. Every ball won’t [seam or bounce unusually]. Some balls will, and if you bowl in good areas continuously, there is a chance you will get wickets.”One boundary Bumrah conceded perfectly illustrated this point. It came off a defensive push from Tristan Stubbs that simply refused to slow down after entering the gap between the bowler and Mohammed Siraj at mid-off.It said something about Bumrah’s percentages mindset, and his control, that this was the only non-edged boundary he conceded all day.And every now and then, a wicket ball came along with an extra bit of something. A bit of seam to Rickelton. Unplayable bounce to Markram. Low-ish bounce and post-bounce reverse-swing to Tony de Zorzi. Low bounce to Simon Harmer.The uneven bounce, from the favourable end, was clear right from the first over of the day, when one ball from Bumrah shot through at shin height and ran away for four byes, and two climbed awkwardly – one hitting the splice of Markram’s bat and the other collected head-high by Rishabh Pant.Jasprit Bumrah is congratulated by his team-mates after completing his five-for•Getty ImagesEven with this early knowledge, though, Bumrah still had to work out the right lengths to hit, to make sure the ball ended up in consistently testing areas.”Basically, it is a harder-ball game,” he said. “So when the ball is nice and hard, maybe the deviation would be a little quicker. As in, when the ball became softer, the deviation lessens. And then your accuracy comes into play.”So when I bowled the first over, everything happened. The ball swung, it stayed low, it went high. It is a little difficult to understand what is the right length. So you keep bowling and keep figuring things out, [that] it is shaping [up] in this manner […] As in when the ball became softer, it did settle down. It was not happening a lot and the deviation was not consistent.”So then we realised, yes, when the ball is nice and hard, the seam is pronounced, it will do a little more and then, when the ball becomes softer, it will become slightly easier [for the batters].”It wasn’t easier in the least against Bumrah. Not when he was bossing the percentages like that.And then, inevitably, came a pure moment to complete the five-for and end South Africa’s innings. If Bumrah’s career has been one of rigorous percentages, it’s also been a highlights reel of jaw-dropping moments. If this one-two punch, to Keshav Maharaj, won’t make that reel, it’s only because it contains far too many moments that are far more ingenious, and have come against far better batters.It was still glorious in isolation, especially for how brutally unsubtle it was. Pinpoint, head-high bouncer to greet the No. 11 – well done for getting out of the way – and then the searing yorker, its angle so wicked and its landing point so awkward that Maharaj was lbw stepping on the ball.No bowler in history with 200-plus Test wickets, as is widely known now, has a better average than Bumrah’s (presently 19.52). His five-for on Friday was his 16th in Tests. Only Kapil Dev among India’s fast bowlers has taken more.Bumrah went past Mohammed Shami’s Test-wickets tally of 229 on Friday. He’s now on 231, five behind Javagal Srinath, who is currently fourth on India’s all-time fast-bowling Test wicket-takers’ list.Why this sudden glut of numbers? Well, one argument has, from time to time, been held up against Bumrah’s claim for all-time greatness: longevity. Look at those numbers again; if you haven’t already retired that argument, you might want to now.