MUMBAI: After a match-winning performance against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Mumbai Indians (MI) speedster Jasprit Bumrah said that bowling is tough in the shortest format of the game and a bowler should not be a one-trick pony.
Fiery half-centuries by Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar and a five-wicket haul by Jasprit Bumrah helped MI seal a comprehensive seven-wicket win against RCB in the ongoing IPL 2024 at Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.
“I’m very happy with the outcome. But I will not say I had always thought of taking a five-for. The wicket was sticking in the first 10 overs. I observed that quickly and tried to use it to my advantage. One of those days where things went in my favour and catches went to hand. Very happy with the contribution. In this format, it’s anyway very harsh on the bowlers so you have to have all kinds of skills. This is what I train for. Come this situation, I should have different options. I should not be a one-trick pony, and can’t just rely on yorker because there will be days where my execution is off so I can rely on other deliveries. Everyone is doing research and data, so people start to line you up,” Bumrah said in the post-match presentation.
“Bowling is tough because you will have to take a beating, you will have to have bad days to learn from it. What I’ve done in the past, whenever I’ve had bad days, I’ve watched videos the next day to see what didn’t work, why it didn’t work, what is the way I’ve been playing. All of these things, you have to be with the curve.
Nowadays, you just cannot come on the day and say okay I’ll do this, maybe this will work. For me, preparation is always the key. When you prepare hard, you put yourself under pressure in the nets. You bowl to batters in the nets who hit big sixes and find out how you react to pressure. Then you start finding answers. That is very very important for me – to keep pushing yourself in training. Then on game day, you have answers that are okay when I had similar pressure in training, I had answers,” the 30-year-old cricketer added
“I do my research and see where the batter is strong. Sometimes the wicket is sticky, but you don’t always need to bowl the yorker. You can use the bouncer, you can use the slower ball. So you don’t need to use all the tricks in one day. You must understand where the game is going, and what the wicket is. There’s no ego in this format. Even if you can bowl 145kph, but the wicket demands slower balls, you have to do that. All of these things are important. It’s not just a one-trick pony – aim at the stumps and go pole hunting,” the Ahmedabad-born player concluded.
Coming to the match, MI opted to bowl first after winning the toss. After dismissing Virat (3) and Will Jacks (8) early, MI bowlers were smashed all over the park by skipper Faf Du Plessis (61 in 40 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes) and Rajat Patidar (50 in 26 balls, with three fours and four sixes). Both put on an 82-run stand for the third wicket. In the end, some fine finishing and shotmaking by Dinesh Karthik (53* in 23 balls, with five fours and four sixes) took RCB to 196/8 in 20 overs.
Besides Bumrah (5/21), Shreyas Gopal, Gerald Coetzee and Akash Madhwal also took a wicket each.
In the run chase, Ishan Kishan (69 in 34 balls, with seven fours and five sixes), Rohit Sharma (38 in 24 balls, with three fours and three sixes) and Suryakumar Yadav (52 in 19 balls, with five fours and four sixes) did not give RCB a chance to breathe and sealed the win in 15.3 overs.
Bumrah was given the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
After this win, MI is seventh spot with two wins and three losses. They have four points. RCB is in the ninth spot, with a win and five losses, giving them just two points. (ANI)
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