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Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], November 14 (ANI): India's pace bowling mainstay Jasprit Bumrah's riveting five-wicket haul on Kolkata's surface against South Africa, which was destined to assist spinners, wasn't due to any magic but a result of consistency and staying patient in Test cricket.
India's adoption of a four-spinner attack for the first time since December 2012 was a clear indication that Eden Gardens would liven up for the ball tweakers as the opening Test progresses. In the opening hour, India, put to bowl by the World Test champions South Africa, struggled to hit the correct lengths due to inconsistent variation as the tourists forged a sturdy 57-run opening stand.
After getting a grasp of the conditions, Bumrah made the ball dance to his tunes, and the indication came when he rattled Rickelton's (23) timber in the 11th over. In his next over, Bumrah hit the deck hard to extract extra lift, luring an outside edge from Markram's (31) hanging bat, which flew straight to Rishabh Pant behind the stumps. While Bumrah ran rampant, Mohammed Siraj heavily leaked runs and spilt 25 in his first three overs.
"In Test Cricket, patience is the first lesson, that if you want success in Test Cricket, then you need patience and obviously what happens is that the outfield here is very fast and the wicket is hard, so if you are more desperate or if you go to put more magic balls, then the run becomes very fast," Bumrah said while speaking to reporters at the end of the day's play.
Post lunch, Bumrah set up Tony de Zorzi with consecutive short-length deliveries and then angled a full-length delivery into the left-hander to pin him in front of the stumps. Siraj found his rhythm, cleaning up Kyle Verreynne and Marco Jansen and setting the stage for Bumrah to clean up the tail. The 31-year-old wrapped up South Africa's innings on 159 by dismissing Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj in a whisker in the 55th over.
Bumrah returned with figures of 5/27 in 14 overs, his 16th five-for in Test cricket. For Bumrah, the key was to keep his temptation in check and target the threatening lengths to create a match-defining impact.
"So you have to control your temptation and keep making pressure, what are the tough run scoring options, not every ball will do, but some balls will do, but if you put the ball continuously in a good area, then you will get the chance to score, but this is Test Cricket, you go to all the places, there your patience will be checked," Bumrah continued.
"There are a couple of days when you take 6-7 wickets in 4-5 overs, but majority of the time you have to keep bowling well, sometimes you may not even get success by bowling well, but keep doing that, eventually there will be days in your career when you will take a big tail, so I'm assessing that and there is a little help in wicket, it's that if you are off the mark, because of the way the ground is, run scoring becomes fast, so you have to be very disciplined over here," Bumrah added. (ANI)