Boria Majumdar in Sydney
Exactly three minutes left for the day’s play to end. Jasprit Bumrah was trying to rush through his over to make sure Mohammed Siraj got another crack at the Australian openers. Usman Khawaja, very rightly, was trying to delay things and waste precious seconds so that there was no extra over. All of this was within the rules. With the delay, Bumrah was getting a little restless and that’s when he complained to the umpire.
The India captain was very much within his rights to speak to the umpire to hasten things up. He was waiting on top of his mark when Khawaja was trying to waste time. It happened twice and Bumrah was clearly displeased.
That’s when Sam Konstas started giving Bumrah the verbal. Without any provocation, he got into the act and started walking towards the bowler. Intimidation? Or is it intimidatory only when the Indians do it?
Some will say he is a 19-year-old. The truth is he is a brat. And he is trying to be cocky and trying to rile up the Indians. In the process, he is overdoing things. All of a sudden we see Bumrah charged up and a heated exchange follows. That wastes a valuable minute-and-a-half but what it also does is get Bumrah into the frame that he needed to be in. He takes his time to bowl the final two balls, the first of which was outside the off stump and Khawaja let it go.
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You could sense Bumrah was upset. With the last ball of the day he gets one to pitch exactly where Khawaja has struggled all series and all the opener does is edge it to slip. It was the moment of brilliance that India were waiting for. As the ball was travelling, you could see the anticipation in Bumrah’s eyes. He wanted the wicket badly. And the moment the catch was completed, he turned towards Konstas and took two steps. Clearly it was an all-out war out there. There was nothing civil anymore and the entire Indian team was charged up. They did give Konstas a bit of verbal and there is no doubt that they will come hard at him first thing tomorrow.
It is a cloudy and cool evening here in Sydney and there is no chance of the pitch changing too much. The red Kookaburra is just three overs old and Bumrah will be steaming in with Siraj and Prasidh Krishna there to back him up. The surface has enough for the Indian fast bowlers and it will be a massive Test for Konstas. In fact, it will be known tomorrow what he is made of. Can he take Bumrah on or will the world’s best fast bowler clean him up early and get into the middle order?
The Test is wonderfully set up. India may not have scored much but on a spicy deck, they are very much in the game. It is now to be seen how they use the new ball and make use of the conditions. But from what we have seen in the last three minutes, it could well be that Bumrah giving Australia hell tomorrow with the ball. Konstas more so.