On this day in 2019: Bumrah’s 5/7 blows away West Indies in Antigua Test
After the disappointment of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, India had travelled to the West Indies for a complete series with all three formats. Having got ahead by winning all the limited-overs matches, India walked into the Test series with a lot of confidence. Interestingly, this was the start of the ICC World Test Championship 2019-21, where India would go on to become the runner up.
Being the no.1 ranked Test side a clinical performance was expected but the Indian team got off to a rocky start in the first Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua. After being reduced to 25 for 3, India would go to recover and score 297 on the back of Ajinkya Rahane’s 81. Ishant Sharma’s five-wicket haul gave India a 75-run lead in the first innings. Rahane followed that 81 with a century in the second innings which helped India set a target of 419 for the West Indies.
A target like that was going to be very difficult, but a spell from Jasprit Bumrah made it impossible for the West Indies to get anywhere near that huge number. With all due respect to the West Indian batters, there was a phase in this innings where Bumrah was just unplayable. The new Dukes ball was doing all sorts of things but more importantly, it was helping the Indian team get wickets.
In his very first over, Bumrah got rid of Kraigg Brathwaite. In his next over, he found John Campbell out. In his next over, he almost got Shimron Hetymer edging to the slips but the catch was dropped. His tally remained at two wickets but he wanted more. In his fourth over, he got his third, Darren Bravo. By now, West Indies were shattered and found themselves at 15 for 4.
With the first ball of his sixth over, Bumrah got another. While Ishant was breathing fire from the other end, Bumrah was deceiving the batters with his pace, swing, late movement from the surface and also accuracy. It was almost like he was darting the balls on the wicket just so that he could get the wicket. It seemed like a smartphone game for him.
On the second ball of his eight successive over, Bumrah picked up the wicket of Jason Holder and claimed his five-for. Captain Virat Kohli decided to give his lead bowler a break and asked others to get the job done. His figures at the end of his spells are thereby: 8-3-7-5. West Indies were 37 for 7 when his spell ended. They were then bowled out for 100, giving India a massive 318-run win. Jasprit went on to finish with 13 wickets in the two matches of that series. He even got a hat-trick in the second game in Jamaica and returned with an average of 9.23 in that series.
