How Jasprit Bumrah: Right arm fast and awesome

Right Arm Fast. The categorization is oversimplifying Bumrah. He is many in one—a versatile new-ball merchant; an old-ball virtuoso, a seam artiste; a supreme length-manipulator, an all-format freak of nature, a talisman, and a match-winner, an icon, and an entertainer. On Saturday, he was all, more than all, and pure theater too. There are many reasons spectators flock to watch him in flesh or turn on the television when he is winding up that unique action of his. Apart from the sense of achievement that will grow with the years in just having been there the day that Bumrah did that, desperation almost to be part of him in some tiny way, Bumrah brings something for everyone. For the masses, he gifts the visceral thrill of a supersonic fast bowler splaying stumps and blasting pads; for purists the joys of his fine subtleties; for the scientists the mechanics of his action; for the students of the game, a light of enlightenment; and for the spectators watching from the stands, a song for their tune, a rhythm for their beat. If Bumrah does not make you fall in love with cricket, perhaps nothing this decade in cricket will. He began the Super Saturday, exceeding his own powers to entertain. His 16- ball 31 was both pantomime and cult. He consigned Stuart Broad, he of the retro headband and 550 Test wickets, to another slice of cricketing ignominy—35 runs in an over, 31 runs from his bat. No one ever has scored as many runs in a single over in Tests as Bumrah. Using the word “score” to denote those 31 runs hardly does justice, or captures the essence, of those 31 runs. You could call it a fluke, freak, or even farce, but it all embellished the entertainment package. It would be one of the most chaotic overs ever in cricket—a top-edge four that just eluded the long-leg fielder, five wide, a top-edged six off a no-ball, a French-cut four, a heave that ended him crashing onto the surface, a one-legged pulled six and a comic single. In the middle, Bumrah was rolling in laughter with partner Mohammed Suraj. So were his teammates in the dressing room. But to gauge the impact of his knock, however fortuitous it was, one just had to zoom into the face of Broad and his captain Ben Stokes. Broad looked as pale as someone trapped with a ghost in a Gothic castle; Stokes, for the first time since becoming captain, looked dazed, leaving to fate the passing of the storm. Those 35 runs not only took India to 416, a target that seemed impossible when they were 100/5 at one stage, but also plausibly destroyed them psychologically. The last three had added 93, and the last pair had 41 runs. It was not the first time that he had hurt England with the bat—the 34 not out at Lord’s and 24 at Oval were useful runs. Stokes blew his cheeks in relief when the partnership eventually ended, with James Anderson consuming Suraj for his 32nd five-wicket haul in tests.