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Bumrah took three wickets as India successfully defended 229 against England
Jasprit Bumrah gave India momentum with the back-to-back wickets of Dawid Malan and Joe Root • AFP/Getty Images
Having to set a total for the first time in this World Cup, India found themselves in trouble with wickets falling regularly, and scraped to 229 for 9, largely thanks to Rohit Sharma’s 87 on a challenging pitch. But eventually, India pulled off a comfortable win over England, and Jasprit Bumrah feels it was a good challenge for the table-toppers.
“It was really good for us because we’ve been fielding first and we’ve been doing that for a while now. Because [India chased] in the previous series as well, which I played,” Bumrah told Sky Sports after picking up 3 for 32 to help enginner India’s 100-run demolition of England.
“It was good challenge for us that we were put under pressure,” Bumrah said. “We lost a little bit of early wickets. We had to squeeze in and in the field as well, we had to put in a lot of effort. So yeah, very happy with the result.”
England, hunting their second win in the tournament, started well in their chase, with openers Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow taking them to 30 inside the first five overs. But Bumrah opened England up in the fifth over, getting Malan to chop on and trapping Joe Root lbw off consecutive deliveries.
Mohammed Shami followed up with quick strikes of his own before Kuldeep Yadav’s corker to Jos Buttler put England in too deep a hole to climb out of.
Bumrah said his plan was to try and find some swing with the new ball, but with nothing on offer moved to harder lengths to look for movement off the pitch.
“Usually when you bowl with the new ball, you first search for swing if there is some swing. Otherwise you just try and hit a hard length and make it as difficult as possible,” Bumrah said. “So there was a little bit of swing, but not too much from my end.
“Then I tried to seam the ball a lot more and which was helping a little bit. So then I changed to seam bowling.”
While Bumrah took three wickets, Shami stole the show with a four-wicket haul that included the wickets of Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali.
“He [Shami] is outstanding. He’s, you know, one of the legends of the game,” Bumrah said. “I feel he has always been quite calm. He doesn’t come out to be flamboyant, but he way he was bowling as if he was playing a Test match and [it] was really, really wonderful to see.
“Usually we’ve had a lot of partnerships in Test-match cricket and I really enjoy bowling with him. So yeah, I’m really happy with the way he’s going on.”
Bumrah made his return from injury in August after spending more than a year out with a stress reaction in his back. He admitted that he had heard questions asked whether fitness worries would cut his career short, but said he was unbothered by all the speculation.
“My wife [the TV sports presenter Sanjana Ganesan] also works in the sports-media department. So yeah, I heard a lot of question marks on my career that I will never come back and all of that, but it doesn’t really matter,” Bumrah said. “I’m very happy. I came back and I realised how much I love playing the game. I was not chasing anything.
“Great headspace was there when I came back from the injury. So yeah, eventually I’m looking at the positives and trying to enjoy as much as you can.”
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