India vs England Highlights, 2nd Test Day 3: Zak Crawley and Rehan Ahmed unbeaten at stumps, ENG need 332 to win in Visakhapatnam | Cricket News
England’s Ollie Pope is bowled out India’s Jasprit Bumrah. (Reuters)
IND vs ENG: Bumrah stuns Pope with magic yorker, makes Root his bunny to leave India on top in second Test
In the few seconds it took for the ball to leave Jasprit Bumrah’s hands and reach Ollie Pope it had turned into a fireball. From the moment it was released, it seemed to have only one purpose — to explode. On search engines, this is the delivery that AI would put out as an example for reverse-swinging yorker. In a spell on either side of tea that read 6-4-3-3 , and included wickets of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, Bumrah shoved England out of the way to seize a 143-run lead for India.
If facing an all-time freak isn’t hard enough, Pope had to do so while factoring the reverse-swing as well in the 28th over of the innings. He probably doesn’t know which side the shine of the ball is. Even if he had a vague idea, he can’t be certain which side the ball is going to shape once it lands. He has a split second to figure all of this and protect his wicket. Having seen Joe Root being worked out and having withstood a storm himself a week ago in Hyderabad of Bumrah, he has to do it all over again. He doesn’t even resemble the batsman who made 196 runs a week ago.
As the fireball got more and more closer, curving ferociously inwards, Pope knew this was a meteor, and he braced for the inevitable. To his credit there was nothing else he could have done better to preserve his wicket but this wasn’t just another yorker, where he was beaten for pace. (READ MORE)
