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The Times of India

Sport

Partha Bhaduri | TNN

Sync and swim together: How Indian bowlers have hunted down opposition batters in the World Cup

Mohammed Shami Jasprit Bumrah India Rohit Sharma World Cup England Joe Root Virat Kohli the World Cup Ben Stokes

Whether hunting in a pack of six or five, Indian bowlers have shown superb control and consistency to trouble the best batting line-ups

LUCKNOW: Mohammed Shami was steaming in, but it was Ben Stokes at the crease who was huffing and puffing. A small group, comprising mostly of the Ekana stadium's administrative staff - and by now, one would assume, some of them quite used to watching live cricket at this ground - stared wide-eyed, in silence, completely in thrall to the pacer's magical spell.

There are joys of moving yourself away from the television screen or glass cages of stadiums and soaking in the sight of a heaving cauldron of 50,000 cricket watchers screaming their lungs out for a pace bowler.

A younger fan muttered, "That was so fast, TV mey pata hi nehi chalta hai (it's impossible to sense the pace on television)."

It may have been only mid-130s kph, but to the naked eye, that is fast. Very fast if you are standing slightly to the right of the umpire's line, on the second tier, but square enough to see the ball's trajectory. No wonder all hell broke loose when a frustrated Stokes quickly gave up the ghost.

There was something primal in the proceedings as Jasprit Bumrah and Shami demolished England's chase on Sunday night. India's sixth consecutive win in this World Cup - this time by 100 runs, against a side that appears broken by bad luck and worse planning - reprised a familiar sight in Indian cricket of late, that of the bowlers stealing the spotlight and fashioning a dominating win. The bowlers owned the night, even as the combined star power of the batters dimmed a bit on a difficult batting surface, Rohit Sharma accepted.

It was Bumrah who prised the floodgates open as England chased an unimposing 230. In complete control of his craft and with great clarity of purpose, Bumrah made the ball talk, slanting it across Dawid Malan from round the wicket and getting the batter to chop one on. Next ball, Joe Root fell LBW for a duck, falling over in the process.

Bumrah knew the batter's ego wouldn't allow him to leave without a DRS appeal, so once Root had signalled the umpire, he merely walked over to the batter, smiled affably and muttered, "That is out," then shook his head as if to suggest he was completely sure. He may as well have raised his finger. Root turned away and began the trudge back, probably completely disgusted with himself.

"Usually when you bowl with the new ball you look for swing," Bumrah told Sky Sports later. "Otherwise, you just try and hit a hard length, make it difficult for the batsman. I changed to seam bowling and that helped. I heard a lot of question marks on my career, that I will never come back (from injury) and all of that. I realised how much I love playing the game. I was not chasing anything."

And then it was Shami's turn. The Shami who was slighted by the team management and kept out of World Cup games to accommodate a stronger batter. The Shami who had thought, as he suggested in Dharamshala after a five-for against New Zealand the other night, that he was hunting in a pack and not in competition with his fellow pacemen. The Shami who described being left out as "painful".

The pacer's bagful of angst and agony was unleashed on Stokes, as if he had just these few balls to showcase the complete range of his skills - the set-up, moving the ball away from Stokes' arc, leaving the batter repeatedly beaten and fumbling before attempting an ugly grand heave and getting bowled.

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"Shami is outstanding, one of the legends of the game," Bumrah said. "It was as if he was playing a Test match. We've had a lot of partnerships in Test cricket and I enjoy bowling with him. I'm happy with the way he is going."

Local boy Kuldeep, a wrist-spinner transformed, too decided to have his say, getting the ball to grip, bite, dip and turn. His dismissal of the England captain, Jos Buttler, might well herald the end of an era in England's white-ball cricket.

Kuldeep's attempt at explaining India's night out with the ball was simply, "There is always a special feeling. There is always public support. I know my ground well."

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Then he got a bit more into the specifics. "This wicket spins and when you bowl on the seam it spins better. I was trying to bowl on a good length and use the crease. 100% it was a good pitch. It was challenging.

"The quality of the players is also important. Under lights the ball was seaming, and we have quality seamers. The way Shami and Bumrah bowled the first spell, they got wickets, and we were back in the game."

"Back in the game" suggests India were not completely confident of having posted a small total. But Bumrah and Shami broke England's back with their mastery of seam bowling, and suddenly India had more than enough to defend.

India now need only Mohammed Siraj to impose his presence. Hardik Pandya is out injured and the team can play with only five bowlers, but that doesn't seem to have affected the attack's bite. With Ashwin sitting on the bench, can India now claim to have the most glamorous bowling attack in the World Cup?