Jasprit Bumrah on Saturday said that he had grown up watching Pakistan bowling legends Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram bowl magical deliveries and the Indian pacer acknowledged the praise he got from Waqar for his match-winning performance.
Bumrah produced a peach of a delivery to dismiss Mohammad Rizwan for 49 and was adjudged the Man of the Match for his spell of 2 for 19 against Pakistan in the World Cup match in Ahmedabad.
“I have seen him (Waqar Younis) and Wasim Akram bowl some magical deliveries. So, to get his nod is great,” he said.
Bumrah said his focus was on reading the wicket quickly and it helped him to find the correct length.
“It felt good. You get to analyse the wicket as soon as possible. We knew the wicket was on the slower side, so the hard lengths were the way.”
“We were trying to make it as difficult as possible for the batters. When I was young I used to ask a lot of questions, so that has helped me develop a lot of knowledge. I like to read the wickets and try a lot of options.
Explaining the dismissals, Bumrah said, “I saw Jaddu’s ball was turning, so I count my slower ball as a spinner’s slower ball.”
“I thought that I could make the run-scoring tough, and it worked. There was a little phase in there where there was reverse swing. It was an outswinger (that) I was looking to ball (to Shadab), but there were parts of reverse swing happening.”
