"The Wicket Is Not…": Bumrah Silences 'Pitch Demons' Talks In 2nd Test

Star India bowler Jasprit Bumrah spoke about the pitch after demolishing the England batters with his strong bowling on day two of the second Test of the five-match series played at ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium here on Saturday. The experienced seamer grabbed six wickets in his spell of 15.5 overs in which he conceded 45 runs. He took the wickets of prominent England batters including Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Johnny Bairstow and Ben Stokes.

The right-arm pacer applauded the young left-hand opener Yashasvi Jaiswal who played a magnificent innings where he slammed his maiden double century (209 runs in 290 balls, with 19 fours and seven sixes).

“Yesterday evening we felt we lost two-three wickets more than we wanted to. So we wanted to capitalise as much as we could. Yashasvi [Jaiswal] played a brilliant innings and kept us in the game. The wicket is not doing a lot. There are no demons in the wicket,” Bumrah said in the press conference, according to ESPNcricinfo.

“Yes, the odd ball might turn, yes the odd ball might swing. Even with the new ball, nothing much was happening. It felt like you’d rather bowl with the older ball than the new ball. But I feel the wicket is really good. Hopefully, we can capitalise tomorrow,” the bowler added.

Bumrah became the fastest Indian speedster to pick 150 wickets in long-format cricket. He reached the remarkable feat after delivering 6781 balls in Test cricket. Umesh Yadav stands in the second spot with 7661 balls. Mohammed Shami and Kapil Dev hold the third and fourth place with 7755 and 8378 balls respectively.

Bumrah reached another milestone on Saturday. He took Kapil Dev’s place to dismiss the opposition’s third, fourth, fifth and sixth batters in an innings in a Test in India. Earlier, Kapil Dev made the record in 1983 against West Indies in Ahmedabad, where the former India skipper made a stunning spell of 9/83.

Coming to the match, India ended the day two of the match at 28/0, with skipper Rohit Sharma (13*) and Jaiswal (15*) unbeaten. The hosts lead by 171 runs.

Lead by Bumrah’s heroics, India had earlier bundled out England for just 253 in their first innings, gaining a 143-run lead. Zak Crawley (76 in 78 balls, with 11 fours and two sixes) did launch an impressive counterattack, but Bumrah along with spinner Kuldeep Yadav (3/71) blew away the rest of the English line-up.

India reached a respectable total of 396 runs in their first innings mainly due to the knock of Jaiswal. Other than Jaiswal, knocks from Shubman Gill (34), Rajat Patidar (32), Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel (27 each) also contributed to the innings.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)