Bumrah is talented with the ball, says Rohit

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma on Sunday lauded his bowlers for their match-winning performance against arch-rivals Pakistan in the T20 World Cup match and described Jasprit Bumrah as a “genius”.

Batting first at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, India were bowled out for just 119 as seven of their players, including big-hitter Virat Kohli, fell for single-digit scores.

For Pakistan, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf took three wickets each while Mohammad Aamir took two wickets. Pakistan did well to restrict India to 119 runs on a pitch where a target of 140 runs was considered a reasonable one.

“We didn’t bat well,” India captain Sharma told broadcaster Star Sports. “At half-time we were in a good position. You expect players to build partnerships but we didn’t build enough partnerships,” he said.

Opener Sharma, who scored 13 off 12 balls, said India fell short of the target by 15-20 runs.

“We talked about how every run matters on a pitch like this. We were getting close to 140 but I felt the bowlers could do the job for us and they did.”

Bumrah: The game changer for India

34,000 spectators gathered at this stadium in New York to watch cricket’s fiercest rivalry. Most of these fans were Indian supporters wearing blue jerseys.

In the second innings, Pakistan got off to a good start chasing the target and looked set for a win, scoring 80/3 in 14 overs, but Bumrah intervened.

When Pakistan needed 40 runs from 36 balls, the Indian pacer turned the tide of the contest when he dismissed a well-settled Mohammad Rizwan for 31.

Pakistan looked in control of the match when they needed 21 runs from 12 balls but Bumrah once again bowled at the right time and took the wicket of important Iftikhar Ahmed giving away just three runs in the 19th over.

Iftikhar’s dismissal virtually dashed Pakistan’s hopes of victory and they fell short of the target as India won the thrilling low-scoring match by six runs.

Bumrah was named Man of the Match for taking three wickets for 14 runs, while Hardik Pandya took two wickets and Axar Patel and Arshdeep Singh also celebrated by taking one wicket each.

“Bumrah is getting better day by day,” Sharma said.

“We’ve seen over the last couple of years what he can do, I’m not going to talk too much about him. We want him to be in that mindset until the end of the World Cup. He’s a talented player with the ball, we know that, but hats off to the other players as well.

“We need everyone’s participation. These small contributions make a huge difference. Whoever had the ball in their hands wanted to contribute for the team,” Sharma said.

There is no panic among Indian bowlers

Bumrah, who bowled 15 dot balls, said taking the first wicket of Pakistan captain Babar Azam was crucial in laying the foundation for their victory.

“And then my third over (15th over of the match), that was a crucial phase of that situation, if that went in Pakistan’s favour then the game would have been over,” Bumrah told reporters. “So that was a crucial phase as well.

“Everybody came in and tried to execute what they wanted to do, and they were able to do that. I think it’s the combination of all those things that really helped us.”

Bumrah said his fellow bowlers were “very calm and clear” about their plans.

“As a bowling unit we take a lot of pride in our bowling and we work hard to develop more skills and try to help the team as much as possible. So we are very happy that we were able to do that in this game,” he said.

“At no stage did I feel like there was any panic in the team, (or) we were thinking too far ahead, so that’s a really positive sign for us.”

With this win, India have moved to the top spot in Group A above USA due to a better net run rate. Pakistan, on the other hand, are still winless and will need big wins over Canada and Ireland and other results in the group to advance to the Super 8 stage.