cricket

Updated: Feb 25, 2019 13:03 IST

Jasprit Bumrah defended his under-fire colleague Umesh Yadav for not being able to defend 14 runs in the final over of the T20 against Australia, calling it a one-off day when his execution at the death went haywire.

Bumrah got India back into the match with a superb 19th over where he gave away only two runs and Yadav had defend 14 in order to stop Australia from reaching a modest target of 127.

Asked about Yadav’s last over, Bumrah came in defence of his senior colleague.

“This happens, death bowling is always difficult in any situation. It always goes both ways and it’s sometimes 50-50,” Bumrah said at the post-match news conference.

“You try your best, and you’re clear in your execution. Some days it works, some days it doesn’t. Nothing to be worried. We wanted to close the game in our favour but it’s okay,” Bumrah, who took 3 for 16 in four overs with 18 dot balls, said.

Bumrah pointed out that Australia, having won the toss, had the advantage of knowing what exactly they needed to do on a sluggish surface, while India spent their innings figuring out what a competitive total would be.

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“It’s a little different once you know your target. It was a small target, so once you hit one boundary then you don’t need to take a lot of risks. At first, we are still figuring out what is the safe total so I think that was a difference maybe. They were were rotating the strikes after hitting a boundary.”

Bumrah further said around 140-145 would have been a par score on this wicket.

“We almost pulled off this game. But on this wicket, around 140-145 would have been a very good score. There was low bounce and it was difficult to hit big shots. It’s always difficult to chase on these kind of wickets,” he said.

Just like his skipper Virat Kohli, Bumrah also agreed that India were 15-20 runs short of par-score.

“We were short by 15-20 runs, but we had a fighting total. Everybody could have taken a little more responsibility but this happens in the game of cricket. We lost two-three wickets more than we wanted to, but we backed our team and wanted to execute whatever we had.”

Bumrah, who perhaps has the best yorker among current bowlers conceded that it wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on.

“I was just focusing on what my strengths are what the wicket was because the wicket was a little difficult to bat on. It’s not easy to score heavily on this wicket,” Bumrah, who returned to action after a being rested following the Test series in Australia, said.

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Dhoni refused to take singles to guard Yuzvendra Chahal in the last two overs.

“We were just trying our best. He was just trying to take the game deep and trying to get us to a safe total which he tried. I think he gave us a total something we could fight for.”

Opener KL Rahul hit a fifty on his comeback and he said it would increase the competition for the opener’s slot which is good.

“It’s always good when you got competition in the team. He (Rahul) looked the best batsman. He was playing with a lot of composure. He started off playing good shots and he was paying conventional shots. So it’s very good when a player like him is back in form.”

Bumrah was also all praise for Pat Cummins who hit the winning runs and also scored a boundary in the penultimate ball.

“He has the composure too. He played well and got an important boundary (off the second last ball). He’s a pretty confident cricketer; he’s backing all his skills so very good for him.”