Virat Kohli
and Jasprit Bumrah have formed a great partnership as captain and as a fast
bowler. India needed to pick up wickets on day 4 of the Centurion Test to take
control of the match against South Africa. So, Kohli handed over the ball to Jasprit Bumrah and the
pacer executed the plan to perfection. A well-set Rassie van der Dussen, who
had faced 64 balls by then, could do nothing to that Bumrah special.

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Bumrah
bowled from closer to the stumps and a little fuller. Van der Dussen had played
it towards cover. Then, Bumrah went a little wide of the crease, bowled on
length, the angle-switch forcing the deception. Van der Dussen thought he had
line covered and shouldered arms, only to see the ball breaking back sharply to
hit the top of off stump. The delivery was considered the Ball of the Match. As
Van der Dussen fell, a 40-run third-wicket partnership between Dean Elgar and
van der Dussen broke.

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Bumrah’s
brilliance at SuperSport Park on Wednesday left the South African top order
tumbling. After India finished Day 4 taking a lead of the match, batting coach
Vikram Rathour heaped praise on the team’s biggest match-winner, as he played
back van der Dussen’s dismissal. “That’s the quality of the bowler isn’t it? He
really set him up well. All of our bowlers bowled well today. They were really
on the spot, really bowling well. And Bumrah bowled a superb ball at that
stage,” Rathour said.

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Bumrah is
not only fast and deadly but his cricketing sense makes him even nippier and
the minor tweak in the angle to dismiss van der Dussen wasn’t a case in
isolation. He had outsmarted Ollie Robinson at Lord’s as well during India’s
last tour of England, when the latter, along with Jos Buttler, was threatening
to deny India’s victory charge in the final session of the game. Bumrah’s trick
then was a brilliantly-disguised slower ball, an off-cutter that had trapped
Robinson leg before and sucked the life out of England’s fight.