How Ravindra Jadeja’s dismissal of Temba Bavuma shows he is the true inheritor of Anil Kumble’s mantle | Cricket-world-cup News

There are some balls that you neither remember for your lifetime, nor forget too soon. They are like the passing scenery en route the winding hairpin bends to the summit of a hill-station. Ravindra Jadeja’s ball that nipped out Temba Bavuma—the first of his maiden five-wicket haul in the World Cup— was one such short-lived delight. You would probably forget the ball the time the World Cup ends, but it would still inhabit the cobwebs of your subconscious, waiting to be dusted up any time. You would not surf the web specifically for the footage, but when you do stumble on it, you would not close the tab either. Memories would gush forth: India versus South Africa, Eden Gardens, Virat Kohli’s 49th ODI hundred, Jadeja’s five-for.
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The ball was splendid, without being spectacular. It drifted in, flattish than flighted, faster than slow, nonetheless foxed Bavuma in the air and spat past his confounded outside edge to hit middle and oft. Even the turn was not outrageous, as when Keshav Maharaj deceived Shubman Gill. The television analysts would show that Jadeja’s turned around four degrees, Maharaj’s was eight. The result though was the same. Both batsmen were bowled.
But the beauty of Jadeja’s bowling is better appreciated through pause and freeze rewatches. You see that Jadeja did not bowl from the edge of the crease to exaggerate the inward angle. Ever a master in manipulating the crease, he was closer to the umpire than the outermost edge of the white-lined cage. The release point though was wide, as wide as he could get from where he was bowling. The arm-speed is slightly quicker, an increase of speed in decimals. His index and middle fingers combine to tweak the ball as hard as he could, resulting in massive revolutions. The ball rips out of his hand, smoothly, but even in its path Jadeja seems to guide it with an invisible string tied to his fingers. Watching it in a Pakan TV studio was Misbah-ul-Haq, who sighed about the difference in the revvs between Jadeja and their left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz.

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The slightly quicker arm-speed and flatter trajectory fooled Bavuma into assuming that the ball would come in with the arm, into the pads. It’s this ball that batsmen fear; it’s Jadeja’s deception point.
In his mind, Bavuma is already playing the straight ball, his eyes are looking straight down, he is already playing down the wrong line. He is expecting the ball to be fuller too, as were the ones before. Jadeja made a mess of his preconceptions. His art has evolved so much that your methods cannot be inflexible.
The South Africa captain is a competent player of spin bowling, but Jadeja was simply too intelligent for him. This was a ball that had more method than magic. Bavuma would feel that he could have negotiated that with better application, and that would tear him apart more than being flummoxed an unplayable delivery.
A ball of more devastating theatre had bowled Steve Smith, arguably the most destructive player of spin in modern times. That one pitched on middle stump and off and clipped the off-bail. Smith’s manoeuvres made it look even more spectacular than it was. But the jaffa at least came on a pitch that abetted the spinners—India had packed three spinners—but this Bavuma one was one was not as conducive, The dew had onset, the ball was not spinning not as much as it had at Chepauk. Jadeja himself would say: “I think when they were bowling, it was more healthy. I think the turn was more and the bounce of the wicket was less. But now, if you ask me personally, the wicket in the afternoon and now – now it was a little easier. I won’t say easy, but it was fine.”
But still he pulled off the tricks. Sometimes, his mastery is better appreciated the teammates and the support staff. “But I think his ability, and sometimes even having to bowl with a slightly wetter ball, because the ball has been slightly wet has been terrific,” Dravid would say before the South Africa game. He would add another line that captured the impact of JadeJa: “You look at numbers, we look at data.”Most Read
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India’s Ravindra Jadeja took five wickets versus South Africa at the Eden Gardens. EXPRESS PHOTO Partha Paul
It applies to his career too. Jadeja has the impish grin of a magician with all the party tricks, he has the flamboyance of a royal, yet his craft is built on grit and not grandeur; subtleness rather than style. You don’t remember the strokes he played, you don’t recount the way he picks his wickets, you don’t remember the runs he saved. He is the opposite of a moment’s player. In that sense, he is a paradox—a flashy personality who plays un-flashy cricket. Probably you would remember his sword-swish celebration, love for horses and fancy cars, his rockstar moniker and gait, but you would not probably remember his cricket. He is like an arthouse movie packaged as a commercial one.
It would not be an exaggeration that he is the true inheritor of Anil Kumble’s mantle. Arguably India’s greatest match-winner, Kumble wouldn’t wow or woo you immediately. He was an acquired taste, his bowling too is appreciated through layer-peeling replays in slow motion. He of course had the 10-for, the first slice of Kumble hory that sticks, and the iconic bowling with a broken jaw image. Jadeja is still waiting for that defining image, though he has produced numerous match-defining performances across formats that are too easily forgotten.
Like Kumble, he keeps adding skins to his bowling, like him, he is selfless, does anything his team wants him to; never complains, fights backs from snubs sheer will and commitment to craft. Both are bound a fierce streak of competitiveness on the field, though they are vastly different personalities beyond the boundary, as apart as Jamnagar and Bangalore are. And like Kumble, he bowls balls that you might not remember for your lifetime. But those that inhabit your subconscious, waiting to be dusted up.