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Bumrah's Yorker Masterclass Keeps Australia in Check at the MCG
Three wickets in eight balls flipped a runaway innings into a chaseable one
CricketKeeda Desk6h ago4.8K views
Three wickets in eight balls flipped a runaway innings into a chaseable one
When Australia reached 165 for 3 with eighteen balls remaining, the Melbourne Cricket Ground scoreboard was already flirting with a projection of 210. That it never got there is down to one man and one delivery: Jasprit Bumrah, and the yorker he has spent a decade turning into a precision instrument.
India's analysts had flagged a simple pattern before the series. Australia's finishers - Tim David and Josh Inglis in particular - score their boundaries in the arc between deep midwicket and long-on, and almost all of them off length balls. The counter was equally simple in theory and brutally hard in practice: nothing in the slot, everything at the base of off stump.
Bumrah delivered it almost literally. Of the sixteen deliveries he bowled at the death, eleven were yorkers or within a boot-length of one. David holed out trying to manufacture room. Inglis was beaten for pace and lost his off stump to a ball measured at 147.2 kph. Cameron Green, starved of anything to swing at, finally picked out the man on the rope.
The spell reads 3 for 24, but the shape of it matters more. Australia scored just 26 runs from the final three overs, having taken 58 from the previous four. In T20 terms that is not a slowdown; it is a handbrake turn.
Head's 62 off 38 had given the innings its platform, and Glenn Maxwell's 34 off 18 threatened to make it a monster. Both dismissals came from the pressure Bumrah manufactured at the other end - Maxwell's mistimed slog off Hardik Pandya arrived one ball after three consecutive dot yorkers.
India's chase target of 192 is steep but shy of what this pitch promised, and the dressing-room sentiment reflected that. "Anything under 195 we take all day," bowling coach conversations reportedly concluded at the innings break.
The bigger picture is the series. Australia have now twice been pegged back in the final overs, and with the decider looming at this same ground, they must solve a problem the rest of the world has failed to for ten years: how do you hit a ball that arrives on your toes at 147?
Bumrah finished with 3 for 24 from his four overs, taking all three wickets between overs 17 and 20.
Australia closed on 191 for 7 from their 20 overs after being 165 for 3 at the end of the 17th.
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