CHENNAI: On Thursday, both T Natarajan and Sandeep Sharma, the two best Indian pacers not named Jasprit Bumrah in this year's edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), showcased their wares to perfection.
On Friday, it was Bumrah's turn to show exactly why he's the undisputed figurehead. Coming into the game against the Kolkata Knight Riders, it was safe to suggest that the Mumbai Indians weren't themselves.
Speculation had been rife that a leadership change had led to a divided house. Batters punching below their weight, spinners being ineffective and overseas bowlers not pulling their weight... You get the drift; it has not been a good campaign.
But that principle doesn't apply to Bumrah, whose artistry shined once again. Under a floodlit Wankhede, he was divine. It was rather poetic that he started his innings the way he finished — yorker targeting the stumps.
When you watch a yorker in real-time, it can look deceptively simple. In reality, it's an extremely hard skill to master because of the margins at play.
In his column for the International Cricket Council's (ICC) website in 2017, Shane Bond had written: "One of the things I keep getting asked is whether bowling the yorker is becoming a dying art."
"I don't think so — it is just that the yorker is being used differently, and bowlers are also experimenting with a range of slower balls. The yorker is not just one of the most difficult balls to bowl, the margin for error is also extremely small. Therefore, it becomes vital to use that weapon judiciously," the Kiwi speedster wrote.
The margin is about 30 centimetres from approximately 22 yards out during your delivery stride after running in. Misalign it by a few centimetres on either side of that 30-cm mark and you will travel.
Not if you are Bumrah, though.
The control he has on the yorker is unusual for it's almost always on the money. The few times he fails to hit the mark, it's usually a low full toss, another difficult ball to get away.
Over the last few matches Sunil Narine has played, bowlers have tried to home in full onto his pads. Some have overpitched it, others have conceded wides.
Not the 30-year-old.
His first ball to Narine is full and straight and the opener just about got an inside edge. He followed it up with another yorker that the West Indian squeezed away for a single. His next two balls to the southpaw were different; one was going away with the angle and the other was a bouncer, which pinged his helmet.
There's a set pattern to how Bumrah has been used this year.
One over in the powerplay, one in the middle phase and two at the death. If ever Pandya had to break that pattern, it was now. Kolkata, on a fresh but two-faced strip, had lost half their side for 57 just after the powerplay.
The visitors used 'break glass in case of emergency' option — Manish Pandey as an Impact Sub — to steady a boat in danger of being shipwrecked. He last played in this format last year.
Alas, Pandya stuck to the template and allowed Pandey and Venkatesh Iyer to stitch an 83-run stand. When he brought back Bumrah in the 14th over, they had already grown in confidence as Pandey ramped him for a six over third man.
His third spell, though, splattered the stumps a few times, as both Mitchell Starc and Venkatesh had lost their stumps to deliveries out of a video game (magical, basically). He also snaffled Ramandeep Singh to return with figures of 3/18 in 3.5 overs.
The problem, though, came from other sources. He has taken 17/274 across 11 games while averaging 16.11 at an economy of 6.25.
The others have not been fit for purpose: Pandya (8/297 at 37; 11), Gerald Coetzee (13/341 at 26.2; 10.17), Nuwan Thushara (4/156 at 39; 10.40), and Piyush Chawla (5/222 at 44.4; 9.25).
The other bowlers have frequently neutralised Bumrah's brilliance. It happened against Kolkata too. The others combined to concede 150 in 15 overs.
Brief scores: Kolkata 169 all out in 19.5 overs (Venkatesh 70, Manish 42; Bumrah 3/18, Thushara 3/42, Hardik 2/44) beat Mumbai Indians 145 all out in 18.5 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 56; Mitchell Starc 4/33).