'T20s Are About Impact, Whilst Test Cricket Fulfills My Bowling Desires': MI's Jasprit Bumrah on Challenges of Bowling in the IPL

Another day, another blinder of a performance with the ball for ‘Boom Boom’ Bumrah as the strike bowler picked up another Player of the Match award and the Purple Cap en route to a thrilling 9-win over Punjab Kings on Thursday.

Punjab got off to the most horrid of starts, losing four wickets in the first two overs, as Gerald Coetzee and Jasprit Bumrah wreaked havoc over the top-order of PBKS.

All hell broke loose in the second over especially for Punjab, as Jasprit Bumrah delivered two wickets in his first over, getting rid of Rilee Roussow with a crushing yorker which went and crashed onto the stumps followed by the wicket of Sam Curran who nicked it to the keeper on the leg-side.

Then, it was once again time for the Shashank Singh-Ashutosh Sharma to come in and salvage the innings, as both firecracker batters went berserk to revive the Punjab innings.

In the end, it came down to the last wicket in the last over of the match, as Ishan Kishan deftly stumped Kagiso Rabada out off Tilak Verma’s throw to clinch the win.

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“This was a close game. Much closer than what we thought it would go. Of course you want to make an impact when the ball does something. In this format the ball swings two overs. When I want to bowl more, I play Test cricket. That fulfills my desires,” stated Bumrah in the post-match presentation.

The ace pacer also expounded on the difficulties bowlers can face in the shorter format in the current age of cricket, with its run-littered nature and hard-hitting antics.

“This format is a little difficult for bowlers, with time restrictions and impact player rules. Batting lineup becomes deeper and deeper. But that’s not in your control. I do relay the message to the bowlers whenever I can. But you also don’t want to deliver too many messages in the heat of the moment.”

MI, on the back of a blistering 78-run outing from Suryakumar Yadav and a fiery cameo from Tilak Verma, put up a fairly competitive score of 192 runs on the board, as they dared Punjab to take their chances against their strike bowlers.

But, despite the spirited fight put up by the lower-middle order batters, Punjab just did not have enough to overcome the championship calibre of MI and fell in the last moment.

With his three-for today, Bumrah also goes to the top of the Purple Cap standings with 13 wickets in 7 matches, and with the win, MI moves up to seventh place in the table, whilst Punjab go down to a measly eighth place.