HYDERABAD: Watching Jasprit Bumrah should come with its own subscription fees and GST. During an incendiary period of play on Saturday, the pacer conjured magic to produce a spell bowling Gods would have approved of. In the process, he smashed through England's spine.
It would be no exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for Bumrah's intervention, the tourists might have run away with the innings. The Bazballers were rollicking along at 113/1 off 18.4 overs, just 77 behind. Needing a wicket, Rohit Sharma turned to his SOS man just after lunch. He would have gotten his rewards sooner had Rohit decided to review a close leg-before appeal.
As soon as hawk-eye showed that the delivery was smashing into leg-stump, a visibly peeved Bumrah hit both his hands on the ground. Normally, he is not prone to such visible displays of frustration. But with runs coming in clumps, the hosts were a touch rattled. They had dismissed Zac Crawley but Ben Duckett had handled both R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja by employing a variety of sweeps.
If the missed DRS peeved him off his next delivery, he saw a mis-field go for a boundary. It was a gentle push but the cover fielder was slow to get down. Peeved Bumrah had become pissed-off Bumrah. Three balls later, Duckett shaped to pull a short delivery. Instead, it kissed his gloves and raced along for another four.
The thing with Bazball is all conventional tropes go out the window. So what if the batter has just hit two boundaries? Keep going. Bad idea. Bumrah, playing just his fifth match at home, was already getting the ball to tail. He got one to pitch on length and come in, the shiny side pointing towards leg slip.
The southpaw Duckett went for an expansive cover drive but his bat wasn't even in the same postcode. The off stump performed a couple of cartwheels before landing next to the keeper.
Bumrah's reaction said it all. His veins were in danger of popping out as the fielders converged from all sides. For somebody whose celebrations are a prosaic recreation of Shah Rukh Khan's outstretched arms and a smile, he was almost apoplectic with rage (think Dale Steyn). There were also some afters with Duckett as well.
25,000 people joined in with Bumrah & Co. to send off Duckett as the atmosphere ratcheted up several notches. It was a physical manifestation of Martin Scorcese's 'this is cinema' meme and Bumrah had elevated it to high art just as the sun was beginning to beat down on a slow strip.
More than 60,000 had walked through the turnstiles of the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in the first three days but at no period of play were the hoi polloi this clued in. Every Bumrah ball was an event.
Nobody dared to blink. Breathing could be paused for a few seconds. A genius was at work and it needed their undivided attention.
That's the thing with Bumrah. He doesn't need assistance off the pitch to be a menace. He's so good he eliminates the conditions. You need special skills to hurry batters on a slow surface, let alone a future Hall-Of-Famer like Joe Root but he was doing just that.
To say Root is a key wicket is a bit like saying water is wet. But because he's a prodigious sweeper, spinners can quickly lose their line against him. He's also one of the better players of spin in this line-up. The hosts knew if they could remove him during this stage of play, they would control the future of the Test.
With the ball showing signs of reverse, Rohit signalled for Mohammed Siraj; pace at both ends. But all the drama was reserved from the end opposite to the Mohammed Azharuddin Stand. The first ball off the 21st over, Bumrah found the same inward movement but Root got an inside edge for a single.
Off the fourth ball, Ollie Pope did well to jam his bat down on a yorker with some tail. That unique slower ball of his followed and a misjudged Pope stroke just evaded cover. A moment later, Bumrah had Root.
It was another length ball with the shiny side facing leg-slip. The movement beat Root's defences on the inside (umpire's call on DRS). He continued for two more overs hoping for one more wicket but his job had already been done for the game.
For the masses — paying public, police, admin staff, scribes and 30 or so compatriots and counterparts — a sacred experience had finished. One of the world's best had taken all of them on an otherworldly adventure.