By the time Jasprit Bumrah came into the bowling attack, at one point during the final of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, at the Kensington Oval, in Barbados, India were behind the game against South Africa, who needed 30 runs at run-a-ball with both inform David Miller and Heinrich Klassen was nailing the boundaries.
The wicket-keeper batter had already smacked Axar Patel for 24 runs in the 14 overs to tear the dream of the India team in ending their 11-year-long drought for an ICC trophy. But the story was yet to be dismissed until Jasprit Bumrah was there in the middle.
India were unbeaten coming into the final of the ninth edition of the 20-over event, as was the South African side. The way they made a comeback towards the end of their innings, thanks to the power-hitters was incredible, until they faced the best bowler of the current generation, across all formats.
‘A huge round of applause for Jasprit Bumrah, please’- Virat Kohli
Coming into the 16th over of the game, Jasprit Bumrah gave away only four runs, against those two aggressive batters, who were set in the middle and were aiming only to crack those big shots at the end. But the way the bowlers bowled in the right channel, and used his variations was praiseworthy.
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In the 18th over of the game, the Ahmedabad-born showed his class and proved again why he is rated so highly among all the other bowlers in this generation.
In that over, Bumrah gave away only a couple of singles, including the wicket of Marco Jansen, who hardly had any knowledge of understanding the dynamics of that ball. It pitched on the middle of the middle and leg stump to open up the batter, before crashing into the top of off to send him back.
India suddenly got themselves back into the contest, while he was fully supported by the other two pacers- Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh to keep the pressure on the batters, especially David Miller towards the end. The 30-year-old finished with golden figures of 2/18 in his four overs, at an economy of 4.50.
During the felicitation ceremony of the Indian team at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, the ‘player of the match’ in the final of the competition, Virar Kohli gave a massive shoutout to Jasprit Bumrah, for being so consistent throughout the T20 World Cup 2024, and pulling India back in the game at the eleventh hour.
‘Like everyone in the stadium here, we also felt at one point if it is going to slip away again, but what happened in those last five overs was truly, truly special.’ Former India captain Virat Kohli described the contribution of Jasprit Bumrah during the ceremony. ‘You know what I’d like everyone to do is applaud a guy who brought us back into games again and again and again in this tournament.’
He also noted how lucky this team has been for having a bowler like him in their side, who is the third highest wicket-taker for India in T20I, with 89 scalps in 70 games, at an economy of 6.27, and a strike rate of under 17.
‘What he did in those last five overs, bowling two out of the last five overs, it was phenomenal.’ The India batter observed. ‘A huge round of applause for Jasprit Bumrah, please. We are lucky that he plays for us.’
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Suddenly, for the Team India stars, the fans at the stadium started chanting ‘Boom Boom’ to give respect to the bowler. The presenter Gaurav Kapoor asked Kohli during the special event whether he would sign the petition to declare Jasprit Bumrah a national treasure, to which the Delhi boy was quick to reply.
‘I will sign it right now.’ Virat responded.
Jasprit Bumrah ends the ninth edition of the competition with 15 wickets in eight innings, at a bowling average of just over eight, with a strike rate of under 12, and an economy of only 4.17, to secure the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award.