How often have we heard that bowlers never get their due in white-ball contests? On Sunday night in Lucknow, it was a lot about India’s bowlers getting their due in conditions where dew was a big factor against England.
With due respect to Rohit Sharma, man of the match for his splendid 87, this had never been considered part of the main World Cup script.
Then again, there was a change in the proceedings. For once, India were not chasing. They were defending a total which seemed anaemic in front of scores totted up on the board in previous matches of this World Cup. This was a real test of the bowlers’ calibre and how they could absorb pressure.
What a response from India’s bowling arsenal, with the nip, pace and accuracy of Jasprit Bumrah shining like a beacon. If Bumrah was nippy, Mohammed Shami – steaming in and bowling an impeccable line – rocked England with four dismissals. Years from now, we may look back on the picture of Ben Stokes’s stumps splayed in all directions as the key moment in the match. Stokes, after all, had won England the 2019 final pretty much off his own bat.
Mohammed Siraj looked the odd man out, slightly coloured, and struggling with his ankle. Siraj has too much credit in the bank, however, for any talk of him being dropped to be countenanced.
If pace, accuracy and swing were the recurring theme from Bumrah and Shami, two bowlers with vastly different styles, the way Kuldeep Yadav flummoxed the English batters was a delight. Mind you, all this was on a pitch which looked two-paced right from the first over. It was especially challenging early on and then settled. Yet, the fact that India’s bowlers looked so threatening with their heady cocktail of medium-fast, fast and spin bowling showed how quickly they mastered the conditions.
India had enjoyed a lengthy break after beating New Zealand to move to 5-0 for the tournament. When they returned, the bowlers certainly weren’t rusty, with just five of them enough to pull off a Lagaan redux. As the arc lights beamed, the grass on the outfield glistened and the white ball got wet.
Gripping it was a challenge. That was where Bumrah showed that he was going to be mean and menacing, bowling a stump-to-stump line that gave England nothing to hit. Bumrah delights you with deliveries that break the stumps or hit the pads. Even the wet ball wasn’t a problem. He literally had a grip on the proceedings.
As for Shami, a man who has three different turf wickets at his home near Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, he has made an investment to train and leave nothing to chance. The rewards have been five wickets against New Zealand and 4-22 against England. Dare to drop him once Pandya is back? It’s a welcome headache for Rohit.
If the two speedsters shone, England had no answer to Kuldeep’s dark arts. He would barely turn the ball at times, and then let one rip. How he preyed on the batters’ minds was a lesson in how to bowl on such pitches.
Kuldeep’s left-arm wrist-spin conjured up such variations even with a wet ball. There was one man helping out, keeping the two balls in use as dry as possible. Being a senior in the side and the former captain, Virat Kohli had no qualms about wiping the ball with a dark towel and then using the sweat from his brow to give the ball an altogether different sheen.
All legitimate stuff. Even as Virat used his sweat, the English batters, and there were some illustrious names in the line-up, broke into cold sweats. They were bamboozled by what came at them from 22 yards away. Wickets fell like ninepins.
It would be wrong to credit the pitch for that. It was hard work from the bowlers, who adjusted brilliantly to bowling second after the team had chased in the previous five matches. India are once again top of the points table with 12 points and a tennis score record of 6-0. As for the dew, it still fell on a magical night in Lucknow. But with India’s bowlers standing tall, it was the defending champions’ hopes of a semi-final place that were reduced to rubble.