Seldom an over is talked about and celebrated after your side ends up on the losing side but such was the greatness of Jasprit Bumrah that ‘Bumrah 19th over’ emerged as a breakthrough google trend all over India immediately after the first T20I at Vizag had ended.
Australia needed 16 runs off 12 balls with five wickets in the bank when Virat Kohli threw the ball to his best bowler Jasprit Bumrah. He started off with a dot ball and gave away only 2 runs in his next three deliveries to put the pressure right back on Australian batsmen Peter Handscomb and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Handscomb, on T20 debut, had to go for a big shot to break the shackles, he tried skipping down the track but Bumrah was smart enough to pull his length back a little. Handscomb got a top edge and Dhoni made the skier look like child’s play to give India their sixth wicket. Coulter-Nile was on strike for the last ball of the over as the batsmen crossed over. Bumrah, who had not bowled a Yorker in his previous five balls, decided to change things up. What came out of his hand would have made even Lasith Malinga proud. The ball tailed in late landed right in the blockhole. Coulter-Nile could not get the bat down in time and it crashed onto his leg-stump.
So what exactly was going through Bumrah’s mind before bowling each delivery of 19th over? The World’s No.1 death bowler opened up to BCCI.tv to narrate the entire feel.
18.1: It was an up-and-down wicket, it was a little sluggish wicket to play on. It was difficult to play the big shots, so I just wanted to bowl a back-of-a-length delivery. He [Peter Handscomb] played across the line. He missed the ball, so it was a dot ball.
18.2 I wanted to do the same, but he stepped out, and it went towards square-leg, he took a single. So still, evenly poised.
18.3 The strike changed, so Nathan Coulter-Nile was on strike. So just trying to back your strengths, trying to back the ball that I wanted to bowl. I changed the field a little bit and then bowled a back-of-the-length delivery, which also went well, the execution was good on the day. Got another dot ball.
18.4 I was just thinking what should I do? Should I change or should I keep on doing the thing which is working? We thought of backing the same thing. So another back-of-length delivery because on these kinds of wickets, people usually feel we'll go yorker, yorker, yorker, but on up-and-down wickets, length balls are always very effective. Another single.
18.5 The last two balls were there, so obviously it is very important to close off the over. I was just talking to the captain: what should I do, what do you [Kohli] think, what do I think. We were just discussing. Peter Handscomb was on strike. I knew he was going to take a chance off this ball, because obviously then it will be easier for them in the last over.
Just another thing that was going into my head was: why to change things if nothing is going wrong? So I was just trying to back the balls which I had bowled earlier. I knew he was trying to go for the big shot, so till the end, [I] tried to watch him - maybe he is going to step out, [maybe] try to give himself room. So I was just focussing on that. So I bowled a length ball, he tried to step out, it went up in the air, and it went towards Mahi bhai, who is always safe as houses. So we were in a very good position.
18.6 There was a little discussion [about] what do I do. Because everybody knew that this is going to be a very important ball, if we close off the over well this will help us to be in a very good position [going] in [to] the last over. So we had some discussions with Virat and Rohit [Sharma], but then we decided to back my strength. We had bowled a lot of length balls, so then we wanted to back my yorker, which I always do. Trying to execute that, and on the given day it was good execution.
So it was a good day in the field. I was very clear on the execution, which I wanted to do. Very happy to be back.
Bumrah’s brilliance suddenly swung the match in India’s favour but unfortunately, Umesh Yadav could not get his act together in the last over and Australia got out of jail in the last ball of the match to gain an unassialable 1-0 lead in the three-match series.