Kuldeep Yadav was justifiably smug in his mid-innings interview. Exact words won't do justice to what he said, but it went something like this: did you see Rizwan didn't try to sweep me even once?
Kuldeep was answering a question about what the state of mind of a wicket-taking bowler such as himself was when he had to wait eight overs for his first breakthrough. He almost shrugged and said he had bowled brilliantly. No width, no sweeps, and seven overs for just 27 runs.
Kuldeep would have sounded arrogant if he hadn't been spitting absolute facts. Kuldeep the bowler is a nice little microcosm of this Indian bowling unit. For example, in the year 2023, Kuldeep is turning the ball half the amount he was turning it when he burst onto the scene in 2017. He is releasing from almost out of the umpire's ear, and also from lower than what he used to.
Everything is just so streamlined: small turn, less bounce, pitch within or just outside the stumps and end up on the stumps. He is nowhere near the spectacle he was when he was almost getting wickets with party tricks, bowling people through the gate or making fools of them with wrong 'uns.
Only after the partnership between Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, the two lynchpins of Pakistan batting, had been broken did Kuldeep try his first wrong 'un. In his eighth over. That's because his scouting told him Saud Shakeel and Iftikhar Ahmed are not that good at picking spin out of the hand.
The Indian bowling attack understands modern ODI cricket. They don't consider "defensive" negative. They consider it a big skill that they can make batters take risks to get runs even with two new balls and the extra fielder inside the circle. Jasprit Bumrah also moves the ball just enough. He hardly ever goes searching for wickets. Same with R Ashwin whenever he gets to play. The current version Ravindra Jadeja is his best: he smashes the good length so often he might well draw water in some coastal areas.
On the back of the pressure they create, the others get the license to go searching. However, it had been a small matter of concern that Mohammed Siraj had been doing that too often for a frontline bowler. The results were there to see as he went for 18 runs in his first two overs. Then he pulled his length back beautifully and went back to the principle of hitting the top of the stumps. Something he doesn't often use, the cross-seam ball, and not the outswinger or the wobble-seam ball, ended his wait for a World Cup wicket.
Babar and Rizwan added 82 runs for the third wicket without really looking in trouble, but they scored at just 4.77 an over. That is because they dare not take a risk against Kuldeep, and risks against Jadeja in this form seldom come off.
Since 2022, Jadeja has bowled 17 times in ODIs, and has gone for more than a run a ball only on three occasions. In this period, his strike rate has been a whole over better than his career strike rate. Not bad for a fingerspinner then.
So while Babar and Rizwan added 87, they didn't do so fluently. Rizwan nearly got himself out trying to sweep Jadeja. A bottom edge off Jadeja, a highly risky slog sweep, and some loose bowling from Shardul Thakur - the only blemish on India's day really - and still they couldn't go at five an over.
In the 28th over, Rohit decided the iron was hot. It was time to strike. Possibly because they were expecting some reverse and wanted Bumrah to utilise it, he went to Siraj before Bumrah. He nearly had Babar caught at midwicket in his first over back, and in his second, again got the breakthrough through the top-of-the-stumps length bowled with a cross seam.
Now, aware of a brittle middle order, India started circling like sharks. Kuldeep's party tricks - only less obvious and spectacular than six years ago - came out. Bumrah came back to produce two magical deliveries to hit the top of off, one a slower offbreak and the other a reverse-swinging outswinger.
In the space of four overs, Bumrah and Kuldeep displayed the ridiculous amount of stick at the disposal of this attack but also the restraint and discipline to know when to use it. It is also a testament to their fitness and planning before going into each game.
Jadeja came back to get just rewards for the bowling he had done for the team before the ball had really started to stay low and grip. His folded-hands celebration at his first wicket, the eighth of the innings, said as much. Two tail-end wickets to Jadeja made it a beautifully symmetric share of two wickets each for the five main bowlers on the day.
They will show you Kuldeep bowling a right-hand batter behind his legs in the highlights or Bumrah's slower ball and the bail-skimmer later, but the highlights won't do justice to the hard work in the 30 overs before that. In the back room, India like to focus more on those 30 overs.