Cape Town: Needless to say it was a dream return for Jasprit Bumrah at Newlands, Cape Town, the venue where he made his Test debut in 2018, as the 28-year-old registered his seventh five-wicket haul in the longer format of the game.
Bumrah took his seventh five-for in Test cricket, his second in South Africa, as India took a narrow 13-run lead over the Proteas in the first innings. Spearheading the Indian attack, Bumrah provided India with crucial breakthroughs, which included the prized wickets of Proteas captain Dean Elgar and Keegan Petersen.
Earlier, Bumrah had a poor outing in Johannesburg, after which his performance came under a lot of scrutiny. The 28-year-old, however, stated that his clinical performance on Wednesday was not motivated by previous failure but it was just focusing at the present.
“Nothing out of ordinary and I wasn’t giving extra attention. I was not really too angry and I was focussed on the present and did what I had to,” Bumrah, who took five for 42 in the third Test, said at the end of day’s play.
With his five-wicket haul, Jasprit Bumrah was the star of day two as he helped India take a slender first innings lead 👇#WTC23 | #SAvINDhttps://t.co/N1c5lcmBlT
— ICC (@ICC) January 13, 2022
Wednesday also began on an equally boisterous note for Bumrah, leaving Dean Elgar’s opening partner Aiden Markram in doubt whether to leave or play and getting bowled. Bumrah said that he won’t quote any ‘magic number’ which could challenge the South Africans but maintained that compared to the first two Tests, this one at Newlands is on the flatter side and batters will get value for their shots.
“It is a new ball wicket, it swings with the new ball and as seam goes down, batting becomes relatively easy. We have seen that trend and we will try to stitch up a partnership and capitalise from there on,” he said.
With his five-wicket haul, Jasprit Bumrah was the star of day two as he helped India take a slender first innings lead 👇#WTC23 | #SAvINDhttps://t.co/N1c5lcmBlT
— ICC (@ICC) January 13, 2022
The premier India seamer added that noise from outside hardly matters as somedays it is him picking the wickets and on others someone else steps up to the task. “Basically, you summed up the question and answered it as well. Theirs success is by product and basically what we do is to have a routine and follow that. Some days I would get wickets, some days somebody else will get wickets,” the 28 year old added.
Explaining further how he reacts to opinions being formed, Bumrah said he doesn’t pay attention, adding there will always be doubters as well as the well-wishers.
“There will be doubters and there will be people praising you and that is something that an individual has to decide. I don’t really pay attention to outside noise as it doesn’t really help. When I bowl, I have it in my control and I try to bring in my perspective towards bowling, try to avoid what’s going on, may be some people might like my bowling and some people might not,” Bumrah asserted.
Talking about the game the hosts were bowled out 210 after India had posted 223 on the board, courtesy Virat Kohli’s brilliant innings of 79 on Day 1.
