After securing a thrilling victory against Afghanistan, Indian star pacer Jasprit Bumrah credited the Indian skipper Virat Kohli for giving him a lot of confidence.
On Saturday (22nd June), in the ongoing 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, India faced Afghanistan at Southampton. It was a low-scoring thriller that India won by 11 runs.
After winning the toss, Indian captain Virat Kohli decided to bat first. However, the Afghan spinners dominated the experienced Indian batsmen in that innings. Indian batsmen mostly struggled to score runs.
Apart from the skipper Kohli and Kedar Jadhav, no other Indian batsmen reached the 35-run mark in that innings. Kohli scored 67 runs off 63 balls while Jadhav played another crucial knock of 52 runs off 68 balls. In that Indian innings, only Jadhav hit one six. At the end of that innings, India managed to score 224/8 (50 overs).
In reply, the inexperienced Afghanistan side fought very well, despite losing their wickets in regular intervals. In the end, Mohammad Nabi (52 runs) became the great threat of the Indian side, but finally, India secured a close victory. Afghanistan was finally bundled out for 213 runs (49.5 overs).
Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah played a brilliant role with the ball in hand to secure that match. The right-arm pacer had the bowling figures of 10-1-39-2. While India won this match, Bumrah won the Player of the Match award for putting a massive impact in this game.
In the presentation ceremony, Bumrah credited the Indian captain’s confidence on him to achieve this incredible success.
Bumrah said, “That gives you a lot of confidence, if the captain has so much of trust in you, that gives you a lot of confidence to trust yourself and clear my head in terms of how I want to execute.”
It was a tight game and I backed my skills – Jasprit Bumrah
The Southampton pitch was a slower track. According to the situation, Bumrah utilised his skills properly. Moreover, forcing Afghanistan to have a higher require run-rate helped the Indian team to achieve a victory finally.
He added, “We saw that wicket was getting slower and slower with the older ball, you need to be more accurate and bowl stump to stump. This is a big ground and there was reverse swing, but you need to rely on your yorkers as well and play according to the situation.
“It was a tight game and I backed my skills. Sometimes when you run behind wickets, you don’t get wickets. We wanted to create pressure and take the run rate high. As soon as the required rate gets high, you get wickets.”
The Player of the Match also spoke about Mohammed Shami’s bowling performance
At the end of that match, another Indian pacer Mohammed Shami put a tight competition for the Player of the Match award. The right-arm pacer claimed a brilliant hat-trick in the final over of the game that helped India to wrap up Afghanistan’s innings. In the last three successive deliveries, Shami dismissed Mohammad Nabi, Aftab Alam and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Playing his first game in this tournament, Shami finished that match with the bowling figures of 9.5-1-40-4.
Talking about Shami’s incredible performance, Bumrah claimed that it provided them with a healthy competition on the side.
Bumrah said, “Gives us healthy competition in the side and we (bowlers) all discuss as what to do and how things are going. It’s a good sign when everyone is chipping in with the wickets.”
At present, Bumrah is the second most wicket-taker for India in this tournament. While the leggie Yuzvendra Chahal has taken eight wickets in this competition, pacer Bumrah has pocketed seven wickets.
Meanwhile, India is in the proper path to qualify for the semi-finals of this tournament. While India hasn’t faced a defeat in this tournament yet, they have earned nine points after the five matches.