Cricket
Sreshth Shah, Sub-editor, ESPNcricinfo 6y

Bumrah rediscovers vintage form

IPL, Cricket

All star of the match

On an evening when the rest of his team-mates went for over 7.75 per over, Jasprit Bumrah delivered 11 dot balls and conceded only one boundary to finish with figures of 1 for 19. At a ground with short boundaries and a true surface, Bumrah found that vintage form that had deserted him up until now. He kept things tight across two very different but key spells: Powerplay and death overs.

After being imperiously pulled by KL Rahul off his first delivery, Bumrah gave away only one more run for the rest of the over. He strung up four dot balls to Chris Gayle by bringing out his variations in all glory.

The first delivery was a fourth-stump yorker that Gayle blocked. The next ball was a slow cutter that induced a thin edge off Gayle's bat. The third ball - loopy and lacking any pace - could only be tapped to point while the fourth fell short of a wide slip.

Then, he returned at the back end, and delivered another stellar spell. A slower ball earned Bumrah the wicket of his friend and Gujarat team-mate Axar Patel. He went for only nine runs at the death by bowling the 17th and 19th overs. In comparison, the 18th and 20th went for 31.

At Indore, it was never going to be about the wickets. The game was going to be decided by who bowled smarter. And with four of Mumbai's bowlers going for more than 9.33 an over, it was Bumrah's four overs that restricted Kings XI to 174. His Smart economy rate for the night: a ridiculous 0.84.

The wow moment

Axar's wicket in the 17th over was a result of the frustration built by Bumrah on the Kings XI batsmen. With Marcus Stoinis and Axar looking to accelerate towards a big finish, Bumrah backed his ability to change his length at will, often going short and following that up with a pinpoint yorker on middle stump.

It forced four mis-hits off the two batsmen, and when Bumrah took the pace off the fifth, Axar wound his bat up for a big shot, but could only chip it straight down Hardik Pandya's throat at long on. Wickets at the death don't save you too many runs, but this was a reward for accurate T20 bowling.

The numbers

  • Bumrah's spell of 1 for 19 saved Mumbai 15.6 runs in the field, according to ESPNcricinfo's new metrics for T20 cricket.

What they said

"His uniqueness is great to watch. When he's on, he's probably one of the best death bowlers in the world."
Shaun Tait, ESPNcricinfo's resident expert, on Bumrah's spell against Kings XI

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