It’s not a clever turn of phrase. Neither is it a courteous gesture in a room full of journalists, who have all seen the highest highs and the lowest lows of the sport. You’ve rummaged around the back of your head, rifled through options on Merriam-Webster, and you’ve still come up empty. You’re just wide-eyed and wide-mouthed, and let out a simple “Holy s**t*.”
Bridgetown, Barbados, that verdant cricketing land that gave the world the three Ws—Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott, Garfield Sobers, and many such cricketing greats—was suffering a shortage of superlatives as Jasprit Bumrah went about doing Bumrah things in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa on Saturday.
There is an air of invincibility about Bumrah. When Heinrich Klaasen was smacking Axar Patel around in the 15th over, which would eventually go for 24 and threaten to break the back of India’s defence of 176, Axar would bowl two wide balls in an attempt to stay away from Klaasen’s hitting arc. Bumrah, fielding at deep fine, realising what Axar was trying to do, would walk back to his fielding mark with a sly smile on his face as if he saw the future.
At this point, South Africa needed 30 from 30 with six wickets in hand, and there were already questions being asked about Bumrah’s late re-entry into the attack. But come he does in the 16th over and concedes just four. “The 16th over, it was a run-a-ball, and we were up against it. But the ball was scuffed, and I knew I could get reverse swing. I am just happy that I kept calm and executed it,” said the redoubtable Bumrah after the match.
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He then returns for the 18th, his last of the tournament. He has six balls to do what he does best - make the opponent sweat. Klaasen’s out, but David Miller’s still out there, and he has Marco Jansen for company, who is no muck with the bat. Bumrah not only clean bowls Jansen with a perfect inswinger but also goes for just two runs to finish the final with figures of 2 for 18. He ended the competition with 15 wickets at a scarcely believable economy rate of 4.17 and an average of less than 8.26 and was rightly adjudged as the Player of the Tournament.
File - India’s Jasprit Bumrah being interviewed by his wife Sanjana Ganesan after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan. | Photo Credit: DEEPAK KR
Before the match began, Bumrah was marking his run-up when he saw his wife, Sanjana Ganesan, who is a TV sports presenter herself. Bumrah kept the bucket of paint down and the couple hugged; Sanjana wishing her husband good luck before the final. Bumrah had been to three finals and a semifinal across all formats in international cricket before... but today as he walked away towards his teammates, he smiled at Sanjana again and gave her a thumbs up as if to say - ‘I got this’. And boy did he... Bumrah had seen the future. And in it, he was the King of the world.
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