Exactly a week after having been leader of an attack that couldn't defend 377
in a Test at Edgbaston, Bumrah ran through England's feted batting line-up in an ODI. In his first four overs he took out Jason Roy, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone before coming back to take two more to bowl England out for 110, their fourth-lowest score batting first in this century.
There was movement available at The Oval, and Bumrah, quick to recognise it, began to bowl fuller than you normally do in ODIs. He needed to bowl only 44 balls for his six wickets, and he drew 20 false responses from batters in this period.
He displayed three of the main attributes of a great fast bowler: outswing, inswing and seam movement at high pace. He did not have to bowl bouncers because the nicks kept coming. At one point his figures read 4-2-6-4, and five of those runs had come off a wide when he overcooked an inswinger.
With Mohammed Shami taking three wickets, it looked like a Test match in coloured kit.
Root and Bairstow took 51 runs off the 68 balls Bumrah bowled at them in Birmingham in the fourth innings of the Test; it was India's third defeat in 2022 after setting the opposition a strong target. At The Oval, Bumrah had Root even before he had conceded a run with a snorter outside off. Bairstow was his third victim; it was an even better delivery, bowled from wide on the crease, seam in position for an inswinger, and then leaving him upon pitching.
3 Number of India bowlers since 2001 who have taken four wickets in the first ten overs of an ODI. Bumrah is the third.
"Once a bowler has let the ball go, there is nothing in his control. Sometimes you will bowl well, get the edge, but the catch will be dropped. Sometimes the ball will pass over the stumps. Sometimes a full toss will get you a wicket. That doesn't mean you bowl more full tosses. So I only try to prepare what I can. After that, whatever is the result, I accept and move on."
- Jasprit Bumrah
Reece Topley
6 for 24 vs India, second ODI, Lord's
The game after Bumrah's demolition job, Topley brought England back with a six-for of his own. This one came in a defence of just 246. Topley broke the back of India's chase with the wickets of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Suryakumar Yadav.