Jasprit Bumrah is not one who can get riled up by someone easily. Even on his follow-throughs there is a controlled aggression that can be seen on his face. But on Day 3 of Johannesburg Test, young Proteas fast bowler flipped a switch with his continuous chatter after bowling one short ball after another to his former Mumbai Indians (MI) teammate.
In the 54th over of India’s second innings in second session, Bumrah was looking to throw his bat at everything in an attempt to score some quick runs for his team. But, the left-arm fast bowler was able to beat Bumrah and hit his body on a couple of occasions which was followed by a comment on follow-through. Bumrah endured it for a while but when it happened for the third time he did not hold back. The two fast bowlers approached each other in the middle of the pitch and umpire Marais Erasmus had to intervene to prevent it from escalating any further.
Bumrah did not get hold of Jansen’s deliveries but gave a reply in the next over by hitting Kagiso Rabada for a six in the next over. The Indian bowling spearhead searched for Jansen on the field like Yuvraj Singh searched for Andrew Flintoff on the field after hitting Stuart Broad for a six in T20 World Cup 2007. But Bumrah did not last long to face Jansen again and lost his wicket to Lungi Ngidi. He scored just seven runs from 14 deliveries.
Sreesanth-Nel fight
More than 15 years ago, former South African pacer Ander Nel and India’s S Sreesanth were involved in a similar battle. After Sreesanth missed a few, Nel had told Sreesanth, ‘You have no heart. You are not good enough’. That was all the boost Sreesanth needed as he hit a six of Nel’s bowling followed by an iconic dance, waving his bat in the middle challenging the Proteas bowler.
Bumrah’s chance
Bumrah will be fired up if he runs in to bowl to Jansen in the 240-run chase. Jansen bats in the lower-middle order and has contributed with the bat as well in his debut Test series. Also, it will be interesting to see if Mumbai-based franchise go after Jansen in the upcoming IPL 2022 mega auction. The 21-year-old was picked by the five-time IPL champion for his base price of Rs 20 lakh last season. So far, he has played two matches for MI taking two wickets.
