Legendary Stuart Broad heaped praise on Jasprit Bumrah after his superb spell against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday. Bumrah returned with impressive figures of 3-14 in his quota of four overs in the team’s opening match of the season.
The gun fast bowler, who was introduced into the attack in the fourth over by skipper Hardik Pandya, dismissed Gujarat Titans opener Wriddhiman Saha with a scorching yorker in his very first over.
Bumrah then dismissed Gujarat Titans’ top-scorer Sai Sudharsan and also bamboozled dangerous David Miller with a slower delivery. Bumrah bowled four spells of one over each and he was right on the money throughout the innings.
Thus, Bumrah’s magnificent spell played a key role in keeping Gujarat Titans to 168 runs but his efforts went in vain as MI lost the game by six runs.
“That’s what he does, it’s just his trademark. He will beat you with the pace. He will beat you with his trajectory. It’s an interesting one with the new ball, I feel like he asked to come on and get the first wicket of the day and set the tone,” Broad said on Star Sports.
“But whatever he is going to use he is going to be successful because of so much skill and so much talent. And it’s just up to Hardik and team and management to figure out exactly where that will work,” he added.
On the other hand, the Australian talismanic batter also showered praise on Jasprit Bumrah for his unbelievable spell.
“He (Bumrah) is such a good bowler. We know that he has been such an unbelievable bowler for so many years. It’s great to see him back after obviously missing last year. He created a good impact in the very first game. He bowled beautifully: 3 for 14, on what looked like a pretty good wicket. I think playing here, it doesn’t give you much but try to get to wickets and that’s the best place to be,” Smith said.
MI has had a history of not winning their opening match but Broad felt they were going to win the game when Pandya smashed Umesh Yadav for a six on the first ball of the final over when they needed 19 runs.
“Games have become so exciting in these final overs. I must admit when Hardik Pandya hit that first ball of the last over for six, I thought they (MI) are going to win this and it is going to be a fairy tale story,” Broad said.
“But as Ravi said, (the trend of) Mumbai Indians not winning the first game (of a season), I don’t think it’s done too much harm, I think they have lots of positive signs for Mumbai Indians in this game but it’s extremely disappointing that they threw away their position because we know how things are to come by and the advantage of the home team in this stage of the IPL,” he added.
Mumbai Indians will next take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Wednesday.
