Jasprit Bumrah once again showed his quality as a pace bowler with a fiery spell against the South Africans after the latter team decided to bat first in overcast conditions. Bumrah, opening the bowling with his long-time new ball partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar, generated great movement off the seam as well as decent bounce to trouble the Proteas top-order players.
A wide delivery proved too hot to handle for Hashim Amla as the edge was caught by Rohit Sharma at first slip. Quinton de Kock also edged a ball from the same bowler that moved away from de Kock after pitching. The left-hander edged it to the third slip fielder. Even South Africa captain Faf du Plessis got a thick inside-edge on his very first delivery that, luckily for him, missed the stumps and went away to the boundary.
While Bumrah was generating considerable movement off the deck, Bhuvneshwar was getting the ball to move only slightly in the air at the other end. As a result, Kumar's efforts were not proving to be as dangerous as Bumrah.
It must be remembered that many experts including Glenn McGrath have described Jasprit as the key to India's success in the World Cup. At the moment, that seems to be proving true.
