India's premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah held his nerves and delivered for Mumbai Indians (MI) when they needed the most. Despite setting a huge target of 229, MI were struggling with Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar dealing in boundaries in middle overs. Before Bumrah came on to bowl his third over, MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene was on the boundary trying to talk to him but the pacer asked him to calm down. Bumrah delivered with the wicket of Sundar with a toe-crushing yorker to bring MI back in the game. Former GT pacer Varun Aaron lauded Bumrah for calming down a 'panicking' Jayawardene.
"He's like an antidote, a vaccine that can cure any illness, which a bowling side can have," Aaron said on ESPNCricinfo's TimeOut show.
"If you want wickets, he comes and gets you wickets. If you want to stop runs, he stops runs for you. Man, what a bowler. And the belief he has in his ability. You have an international coach [Mahela Jayawardene] who is obviously panicking because his bowlers have suddenly started to go to the cleaners, and he just turns around and is like 'just calm down, I'll do the job for you'. Comes in, runs in, gets hit for a six and then gets that ball."
'Impossible to negotiate'
Bumrah conceded just 27 runs from his quota of four overs in a high-scoring contest in Mullanpur. Aaron pointed out that it was a difficult angle for Bumrah but he bowled a delivery that was impossible for Sundar to keep out.
"For him to bowl from that angle is really difficult," Aaron said. "It's easier for him to go wide to a left-hand batter but for him to actually target that leg stump of Washington Sundar... Washy was setting up for something wide or something in his arc, but that was just impossible to negotiate."
Sundar departed for a 24-ball 48. Then, Sudharsan was dismissed by Richard Gleeson. GT ended up losing the match by 20 runs.
Bumrah's supremacy
Bumrah is sixth on the list of leading wicket-takers in the season. He has 18 wickets from 11 games at an average of 15.33. His economy rate is very impressive at 6.36 runs per over. No other bowler with two or more wickets in the season has a better economy rate than Bumrah.