Jasprit Bumrah’s tour: Broken heart emoji to a beaming Man of the Series smile | Cricket News

It was a lovely little moment that came at the end of the shortest Test in 90 years in terms of overs bowled. In 107 overs, India had wrapped up a seven-wicket win, adventurously chasing down 79-run target, when Jasprit Bumrah walked up to the presentation ceremony to translate the man-of-the-match winner Mohammad Siraj’s Hindi comments to English for the broadcasters.That’s when Bumrah was confronted with the task of relaying Siraj’s rave about him to the world. Siraj had talked about how Bumrah assesses the pitch quickly and passes relevant information to him and all he needs to do is to be consent with that. Bumrah smiled, paused, and then said those words in English but converted it all as a “we”, a group activity rather than take credit, ending with a charming, “And it sometimes helps him (Siraj),” even as a smile creased his face.
There were no smiles before the tour but heart-broken emojis from him that had caused a big flutter in Indian cricket. It was interpreted as a reaction to not being given captaincy of Mumbai Indians when the franchise decided to replace Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya. There were no smiles even a couple of months prior to that emoji but apprehension in general at how the all-new Bumrah would bowl after a comeback from a lengthy hiatus to injury.

2⃣ Tests1⃣2⃣ Wickets @Jaspritbumrah93 led the charge with the ball for #TeamIndia & shared the Player of the Series award with Dean Elgar 🙌 🙌#SAvIND pic.twitter.com/emy6644GXh
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 4, 2024
Neither were there any smiles after the last tour of South Africa where he led the team’s attack along with Mohammad Shami but couldn’t conjure any breakthrough miracles in two Tests, unable to defend a tough 200 plus totals in the last innings. It was batsmen’s failure primarily that they couldn’t give Bumrah and co. generous totals to defend, but the question does raise, especially after the consently heroic performances in similar situations world’s best Test bowler Pat Cummins who always finds a way.
Skillful warrior
So, the dant past was smirking, the recent one with IPL heartbreak was raising eyebrows about his state of mind, but it was Bumrah the skillful warrior that turned up in South Africa to win the man of the series. He had already silenced the injury doubters spectacular performances in the ODI World Cup and now he had firmly shut up the mouths of those who wondered if his body would be a limited-overs bowler or be as effective as before in Tests. It was as much a triumph of body as it was with the mind – and befittingly it came at Cape Town where he had made his Test debut. Circle of life, and all that.
Mind and body willing, he had to still rev himself to do the damage with the ball. Even on Thursday, especially as his team had imploded a day before, losing six wickets for nothing. If South Africa had gotten to a 175-run target, who knows what could happen.
Bumrah dealt a first-over blow to South Africa that must have settled the nerves. He quickly sensed the nervy urge of David Bedingham to attack and forced him to hit a nipbacker on the up; one element was threat enough but the combined forces of the seam movement and vertical lift proved too much and it was nicked to the ‘keeper.

#JaspritBumrah cemented his credentials as one of the finest Test bowlers in world cricket, with a superb 6/61 to set up a manageable target for #TeamIndia!
Relive his awesome spell here!#Cricket #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/UatZc0dw
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) January 4, 2024
Late last evening, Bumrah had already produced a pearler, one that kicked up steeply and with force from a length to startle Tran Stubbs into edging. A similar delivery from Curtly Ambrose was good enough to sort out a young Sachin Tendulkar in the 1992 World Cup and this one with even more vicious lift proved too much for poor Stubbs. It would have troubled even the adult Tendulkar.
From that Bedingham moment on, it was classic Bumrah unleashing not just his wizardry but his well-thought-out set-ups. It would have been easier for him to just keep hitting the length or back of length to extract bounce to harass the South Africans but he mixed his deliveries so expertly that a highlights reel might show as if batsmen needlessly self-destructed and flayed at deliveries. They didn’t.
Bag full of tricks
Bumrah would make them claustrophobic with his hard lengths and slip in the fuller wider potentially jail-break deliveries and suck them into injudicious drives. It was his version of ‘zeher ka peda’ – a colloquial term from Mumbai maidaans from the past about the over-flighted sucker ball that spinners would bowl, only to fool the batsmen with weighted drops.
Marco Jansen hit a full-ball back to Bumrah, Keshav Maharaj sliced a drive to gully and Lungi Ngidi edged a real full ball that shaped away ever so slightly to slips. In between he had Kyle Verreynne to miscue a pull to mid-on. He nearly would have had South Africa’s best batsman on the day Aiden Markram but an regulation chance was grassed the wicketkeeper KL Rahul.

A pitch that favoured the bowlers saw #TeamIndia make it difficult for #SouthAfrica batters!
Here are the fall of wickets. Relive the 🔥 spells & cherish this big win for 🇮🇳#SAvIND #Cricket pic.twitter.com/q60Q98dlpa
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) January 4, 2024
Siraj was right. Even in the first innings, Bumrah had led the way, deploying the leg-and-middle line of attack to the left-handers Dean Elgar and Tony de Zorzi. And how to keep it simple to the right-handers on and around the off-stump line.
On a pitch where no ball was ever going to hit the stumps or fetch a lbw (barring one finally from Kagiso Rabada that kept a tad low to surprise Shubman Gill in the second innings), Bumrah was spot on with his lengths. He sowed doubts, Siraj reaped the rewards in the first innings – and it was a solo show in the second to ensure India didn’t have to chase too many.