VISAKHAPATNAM: Treasure these moments. Bottle it and sell it in the supermarkets. In a country where it's fashionable to chant slogans, maybe give 'Jai Jasprit Bumrah' a try. It may catch on.
As the clock ticked past 4.25 PM, the Stadium was bathed in two kinds of light — artificial and natural. In the middle, there was a third kind. Divinity as Jasprit Bumrah stood near the pitch, his arms held aloft. He had the innings ball with figures of 6/45 after 15.5 overs.
He doesn't do theatrics but he may have as well ripped his shirt and gone all Maximus. "Are You Not Entertained?" In the terraces, they surely were. They were whistling, cheering and honking one of India's greatest fast bowlers. Four hours earlier, they were quiet, glum-faced and took to stress eating at lunch. There were only prayers and vibes.
Actually, scratch that. India didn't even have vibes. The only thing flatter than their body language was the pitch. Or so it seemed. The visitors, in pursuit of India's 396, had got off to an ODI-esque start of 59/0 in 10 overs, with 11 boundaries. Mukesh Kumar had conceded three fours in one over. Bumrah had given away four fours in one over.
Rohit had more problems than in your typical 12th standard Mathematics textbook. A proud Test record at home was on the line. The last time they lost back-to-back matches in a series on these shores, Hyderabad, the venue of the first Test, was in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana was yet to be realised and Visakhapatnam was a quaint coastal town without any of the modern aspirations and ambitions. You don't want to be the captain that goes into the history books for the wrong reasons.
Luckily, you can get away with only prayers. As long as you have Bumrah and an assortment of other individuals capable of individual brilliance from time to time.
There was that time in the 90s and the aughts when families would allow kids to pause their studies when Sachin Tendulkar was batting. They might have as well said: "What we are doing is probably wrong but you are allowed your one TV hour per day because this guy is too good." These days, that honour surely belongs to Bumrah, a one-man battering ram. He's an artist whose craft will continue to be studied long after he has put down the ball. The French may not know much about cricket but what he does must command a place at the Louvre.
The art he produced on a hot Saturday afternoon elevated the sport. Even for a bowler who routinely turns water into wine, to be in the YSR ACA-VDCA Stadium was to be granted access to the Sanctum sanctorum. If being in Hyderabad to watch the 30-year-old's spell post lunch on Day 3 was the trailer, the feature film didn't disappoint. Kuldeep Yadav (to induce Ben Duckett's dismissal with dip and bounce) and Shreyas Iyer had already produced two moments to bring the hosts back into the contest but it was the pacer who conquered Bazball.
His narrative-altering spell, though, strangely enough, began with a single Mukesh Kumar over from the Media Box end. There was a hint of reverse for him and Rohit may have started wondering. A rampaging Zak Crawley had chanced his arm one too many times and ended up miscueing a lofted shot to Shreyas who completed a fine tumbling catch at short third-man.
With Joe Root fresh, Rohit didn't want a second invitation. The No. 4 had gotten out to the 30-year-old's guile seven times in Tests.
Mukesh had got the ball to reverse inwards but Bumrah wanted to try something different. So he moved slightly wider and had the shiny side of a 25-overs-old ball on the outside. In theory, it would come in with the natural angle before nibbling away ever so slightly. Pat Cummins, one of the few bowlers to have troubled Root more times than the Indian speedster (11 wickets at 26 runs per scalp), had done this to limit his natural ability.
11th ball into his new spell, and he had him for an eighth time. If he got the ball to hoop inwards to catch him leg-before at Hyderabad, he got the ball to leave the right-hander after pitching. It was wide enough for the No. 4 to leave alone but you are never really sure because of the late movement. So Root wanted to nibble. A healthy edge was pouched by Shubman Gill.
Then came the piece de resistance, Bumrah's Starry Night. After looking like a million bucks a week ago, Ollie Pope was batting like a lottery winner. You kind of knew what was coming. The crowd kind of knew what was coming. Even Pope kind of knew what was coming. But therein lies the beauty of a reverse-swinging yorker that crashes into the stumps at over 135 clicks. When you get it right, it kind of is inevitable.
Two of Pope's three stumps lay on the ground. Perhaps, it was a sign to genuflect in his general direction. When he went for a bathroom break a couple of overs before tea, his spell read — 4-2-3-2. Bumrah had ended Bazball, as the kids might say.
His work wasn't yet done. Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Tom Hartley and James Anderson were all dismissed by the pacer in a frenetic, madcap post-tea session. On a pitch where many thought R Ashwin would reach 500 wickets (he may yet do that in the fourth innings), it was Bumrah who led the team off the park. After his first five overs, he had given away 25 runs for no wicket. Since then... 10.5-4-20-6.
City of Destiny. Destiny's Child. It has a nice ring to it.
