With a six-wicket haul on the penultimate day of the Ranji Trophy 2016-17 semi-final against Jharkhand, Jasprit Bumrah and his partner RP Singh (3/25) bowled Gujarat to a thumping win.
Reflecting on the win, Bumrah said, “It is a brilliant feeling! It was our best game of the campaign so far as till today nobody was on top. The game was even throughout the day. I think it was a brilliant game played by both teams.
“I am very happy. It is an emotional day. We (most of us) have played U-19 and U-23 cricket together so we wanted to win as a group. We have been doing well over the last couple of years, but just missed out by a small margin, so we were confident that this year we will not let it go,” he added.
Discussing the bowling performance, Bumrah said, “In the fourth innings, 235 is a challenging target. One or two wickets can change the whole match. Our basic plan was to stick to our line and length and not go for wickets; bowl good line and length and then we will get the rewards. The ball was swinging as well so that helped a bit too.
“Patience was the key. We were not trying too hard to take wickets or just go all out. Since it was a challenging total, we had to take care of the (flow of) runs as well. We were just trying to bowl good line and length and let the batsmen make the mistakes,” Bumrah explained.
Speaking about the Jharkhand lineup, he said, “We had bowled well in the first innings as well. We were a bit unlucky as edges didn’t carry. We always had to believe that the bowling lineup is capable and we can take 20 wickets in any case. Jharkhand team plays attacking shots and we saw that in the first innings so we planned accordingly.”
While talking about his bowling, Bumrah said, “I had a decent game in the previous match. I was happy and confident. This was a red soil wicket and we had played all our matches on black soil wickets, so you have to adapt and adjust to the line and length.”
The bowler said that the inputs of the experienced RP Singh too have been invaluable and his guidance has helped perform in various situations.
Speaking about the senior pacer, coach Vijay Patel said, “He is an experienced player and we always kept him for these big matches to use his experience and he proved he as he got the wickets. He gave the early breakthroughs and paved the way for victory.”
Asked about the team’s win after conceding the first innings lead, he said, “It was mere 18-run lead. We knew this is a five-day match and this is a red soil wicket so day-by-day the wicket was deteriorating.”
