Pacer Arshdeep Singh
Credit: PTI
Arshdeep Singh has not been more expensive in a four-over quota at this T20 World Cup than he was against Australia on Monday, but he revealed that he didn’t mind for Jasprit Bumrah’s unreal efficacy had him covered.
The left-arm seamer went for 37 runs from 24 balls but picked up three wickets in India’s 24-run win over Australia in their final Super Eights engagement. It was not the tidiest of spells by Arshdeep’s new standards, but it was crucial in ensuring India’s spot in the semifinals.
“I guess a lot of credit goes to Jasprit because he puts a lot of pressure on the batters,” said Arshdeep in the post-match presentation. "He gives what, three or four runs in an over. So, batsmen are coming hard against me and when they are trying, I just have to try and bowl my best ball and there are a lot of chances of getting wickets there because on the other hand, they see the runs are not coming and the asking rate is going high, so they take more risk against me and there's always a chance of getting a wicket there. So, I guess there's a lot of credit that goes to, of my wickets, Jasprit.”
That said, the first two overs of Bumrah were a bit out of character, those three fours in an over to Travis Head was absurd. Bumrah couldn’t help but chuckle himself, but the problem was that Australia were quickly gaining on them, needing 107 from 60 balls. Arshdeep explained the thought process when it came down to defending that.
“The thought was clear, our batters also batted on the same wicket and early on it was easy to score runs, the ball was coming on nicely but afterwards it became tough to hit boundaries. So, we knew when we got a couple of wickets, it would be tough for the new batters coming in to hit boundaries at will. So that was the plan and a couple of nice overs from the spinners in the middle overs helped us.”
Arshdeep also drove into the value of the contribution from the likes of Hardik Pandya, who scored 27 from 17 balls, including a boundary and a couple of sixes.
“It was very important because as I said before from one end it was very hard for the bowlers to even pitch the ball and the ball was flying to the boundary,” said Arshdeep. “So, having that cushion of extra 15 to 20 runs always helps as a bowler and gives you that extra freedom to go for the wicket because eventually, you're going to go for runs in this format. So, if you're taking wickets, you have the upper hand in this game. And when you have 15 or 20 more runs on the board, you always have the leverage to try a couple of more things.”