India’s fast bowling duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami is one of the most lethal pairs in the cricket world. When there was a tinge of grass at the Kennington Oval, London on Tuesday and the clouds were grey, the duo must have licked their lips when Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first.
Bumrah didn’t take long to do what he does best when the conditions are in favor. The gun fast bowler dismissed Jason Roy with the ball which took the England opener’s inside edge to the stumps. Joe Root, who is in form of life, could not handle the extra bounce that Bumrah yielded from the surface and could only manage an outside edge, which was taken by Pant.
Mohammed Shami on the other hand, got the ball to move back into England’s Test captain Ben Stokes and Pant took another good catch. Jonny Bairstow, who is also batting like a dream, was dismissed by a peach of a delivery from Bumrah. Liam Livingstone had other plans as he danced down the track but found his stumps rattled to leave his team tottering at 26-5.
Bumrah took four wickets in his opening spell and then returned to complete his well-deserved five-wicket haul. The ace pacer returned with impressive figures of 6-19 in 7.3 overs he bowled. He bowled three maiden overs and a total of 38 dot balls against a world-class England batting line-up, which looked toothless.
Shami also returned with three wickets as England was bundled out for only 110 runs. India then made a mockery of the run-chase as Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan got their team over the line inside 19 overs to give a thumping 10-wicket win to their team.
Bumrah was awarded the Player of the Match award for his prolific performance.
He said after the game, “When there’s swing and seam movement, it is very exciting in white-ball cricket to get that opportunity because you have to be defensive with the kind of pitches we usually get. When I bowled the first ball, I found some swing and we tried to exploit that. When it doesn’t swing, I have to pull my lengths back. When the ball is doing something you don’t have to try a lot. When the wicket is flat your accuracy is tested. It is a good place to be when the ball is swinging. As soon as Shami bowled the first over, we had a conversation to go fuller. Very happy for him, he gets a lot of wickets. I told him when he beats the bat, that there would be days when he’d run through the side. When the ball is moving around, the keeper and the cordon is very active. Very happy that Rishabh has been working hard on his keeping as well as his batting.”
The second ODI will be played at Lord’s on Thursday.
