Ball by ball, Bumrah casts his magic over and over

A little over three years into his international career, Jasprit Bumrah has already built up quite a reputation. He is ranked No.1 in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Rankings for bowlers and has a fantastic Twenty20 International record too.

It was through promising performances in the IPL that Bumrah first burst into prominence. In his initial years in the limelight, he was earmarked as being a white-ball death bowling specialist.

Since then Bumrah has evolved into a complete bowler. Since his Test debut in South Africa in early 2018 he has quickly emerged as one of the country's mainstays and was the joint leading wicket-taker in the Tests on the recent tour of Australia, when India won their maiden Test series on those shores to create history. His performances with the new ball have also improved tremendously, but his death bowling has become the stuff of dreams.

On Australia's recent limited-overs tour to India, when they swept the T20Is 2-0 and won the ODIs 3-2, Bumrah repeatedly stood out through his death-bowling exploits to make Australia work hard for each of those victories. It was evident that he had taken that form into the IPL, when on Thursday, 28 March, he conceded just eight runs from his last three overs for Mumbai Indians, while also picking up three wickets to be named Player of the Match on a batting friendly surface.

At one point, Royal Challengers Bangalore seemed to be in control of proceedings with Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers going strong in a chase of 188. The partnership had swelled to 49 runs, both batsmen looking set. That is when Rohit turned to Bumrah, who delivered by getting Kohli out with a steepler.

"I was just focusing on my plan," said Bumrah while receiving his match award. "I was trying to be clear, trying to assess the wicket and to back my strength. So that was the plan for today, the same goes for every batsman.

"You know they (Kohli and de Villiers) are the best in the world, but you don't think like that. You think you have to back yourself and try to execute what is there."

He then went on to bowl the 17th and 19th overs of the game, in which he not only dismissed Shimron Hetmyer and Colin de Grandhomme, but also conceded just six runs in total to leave them requiring 17 from the final over, which Lasith Malinga successfully defended – albeit in slightly controversial circumstances.

Bumrah was characteristically modest when asked how he was able to tie batsmen down in the crunch overs on such a frequent basis, suggesting that his only thought process is to focus 'ball by ball' to avoid getting distracted by the complexity of the broader situation.

"You don't think so much, you just go ball by ball, focus on the situation which is given to you. You try to control the controllables because you know we are playing against the best in the world. So it can get difficult, but you try to back yourself in every situation and try to go ball by ball, not try to think too far ahead because in this game you take one or two wickets and the pressure is always back on the other side."