India 119 (Pant 42, Naseem 3-21, Rauf 3-21) won Pakistan 113 for 7 (Rizwan 31, Bumrah 3-14, Hardik 2-24) by 6 runs
One team had Jasprit Bumrah. The other didn’t. And that was it. That was the difference. His legend is full of incredible displays. But this will be all the sweeter, not just for the fact that it came in a T20 World Cup match against Pakistan, but for the fact that without his intervention this game would almost certainly have ended differently. India defended 119. Pakistan lost after being 80 for 3. The finalists of the 2022 tournament are in serious danger of an early exit.
Pakistan need 40 runs from the last 36 balls with seven wickets in hand. The ESPNcricinfo forecaster gave them a 93% chance of winning then. Poor creature. It’s left on the fritz. Bumrah’s discipline, his composure under pressure, his extraordinary ability, not only to deliver the right ball but also to understand the right ball, confused man and machine in New York.
Mohammad Rizwan thinks there was a full ball to play a diagonal shot. His stumps paid the price. Shortly after being hit back, Bumrah spread his arms and broke into a smile. This is his usual feast. But he didn’t stop there. He growled. And over 30,000 people on the ground roared with him. He punched the air. Millions were added with him. This was the opening on which India could build. This was the crack that would cause the collapse. Rizwan, the set batsman, fell for 31 off 44. Bumrah, who had Babar Azam earlier, also dismissed Pakistan’s last hope, Iftikhar Ahmed, in the 19th over. Of his 24 balls, 15 were dots.
Bumrah’s mastery made a piece of history: 119 is the lowest total he has ever defended in a Men’s T20 World Cup.
India waited until the third over to deploy their super weapon. Then they had to wait until 15 to bring him back. In between, they relied on others to keep the pressure on and two people in particular did that with determination. Hardik Pandya and his short offerings were always going to be a threat on this New York pitch with uneven bounce. He stopped Fakhar Zaman before he could play the kind of cameo that would kill chases like these. And then he brought out Shadab Khan. Both times the batters were surprised by how high the ball was when they made contact with it. Hardik was not. He just shrugged, as if to say, yes, I do. It was not something.
Axar Patel was the other unsung hero, bowling the first of the death overs and somehow holding on to just two runs despite facing a left-handed batsman with the short leg-side boundary. Imad Wasim was never allowed to win the match as he was fed a diet of no-spin deliveries that were aimed at his length and kept bouncing over his cut shots. Bumrah had India’s biggest swing of momentum according to Forecaster, 44% at the end of the 19th over. Axar created the second largest swing, with his defensive abilities gaining 13%.
This was the best pitch in New York so far. But even this had its risks. Largely in the form of the ball not going in, and occasionally with uneven bounce. Rizwan and Arshdeep Singh were hit on the arm.
A bit of luck is required in these conditions. Pant realized this when he survived three chances to take a catch in three balls and later survived an inside edge that could have gone to the stumps. A little bravery helps. Pant showed it when he smashed Harris Rauf to extra cover. Not a bit of imagination is wasted. Padd captured this with a shot that he played going down the floor because that was the only way he knew how to get under a good length ball and put the gap to fine leg. Later, on Imad’s extremely accurate left-arm spin, he pulled off the standing reverse sweep.
It was hard to beat out there. Pant’s unorthodox methods made him successful. made him stand out. He made 42 off 31 at a strike rate of 135. Rest of India made 70 off 84 at a strike rate of 83.
In the USA game, Mohammad Amir was everywhere. In this, he was spot on. Eight of the first 12 deliveries he bowled resulted in false shots. Early on with the new ball, he won the bat three times in a row. Later, with the old one, he scored a hat-trick. Pakistan dropped him in the first innings and when he came in, India had already lost their two best batsmen, both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli caught balls stuck in the pitch, a theme that would continue for the rest of the innings. . Amir had a soft entry but made the most of it. His best work coincided with Pakistan’s best phase of the game when they bowled four overs between the 12th and 15th overs where only eight runs were scored and four wickets taken. India went from 89 for 3 to 96 for 7. At the halfway point, Pakistan took the lead. Twenty overs later, they were facing elimination, partly because they were not the team with Jasprit Bumrah.