BUMRAH HAS BEST YORKER: AKRAM
■ Former Pakistan pacer hails Indian bowler’s ability and unique action
New Delhi, Jan. 19: Back in his time, he knew a thing or two about bowling ‘toe-crushers’ and no wonder Wasim Akram is all praise for Jasprit Bumrah’s ability to bowl the “most effective yorker” currently in world cricket.
Bumrah, who played a pivotal role in India’s maiden Test series win on Australian soil, has been an ‘x’ factor in Virat Kohli’s set-up. “Jasprit Bumrah has the best and the most effective yorker among fast bowlers playing international cricket now,” Akram said during an interaction.
Arguably the greatest left-arm fast bowler to have ever played the game, Akram believes that Bumrah will make a difference during death overs at this year’s World Cup with his ‘go to ball’.
“Bumrah has an exceptional action, very different from other fast bowlers and yet he gets the ball to swing and also move off the deck at good pace,” Akram said.
“But what makes Bumrah special is his ability to bowl yorkers on a regular basis. Also yorker is not just used for ODIs but for Test matches too as me and Waqar did in our times,” the Sultan of Swing said.
A lot of it Akram believes could be attributed to tennis ball cricket, which helps aspiring bowlers perfect their yorkers.
“If you see, whether it’s me coming from Pakistan or Bumrah coming from India, we are all products of tennis ball cricket,” said Akram.
“When you play gully cricket with buildings on both sides and the batsman being deprived of playing cross batted shots on both sides, they are forced to play straight then. “And then you start pitching it up and in the process learn to bowl at the base and prevent the batsman from going down the ground. You will see a lot of yorkers in 10PL,” said Akram.
He was all praise for India, which became the first country from Asia to win a Test series in Australia. “It’s a huge achievement to win a Test series in Australia. I don’t subscribe to the view that this is a weakened Australian side. Let’s not take away any credit from Virat and his boys. The kind of consistency they have shown is indeed a big deal,” said Akram. Lucknow, Jan. 19: Harvik Desai hit his maiden firstclass century to help Saurashtra pull off the highest run chase in Ranji Trophy history, beating Uttar Pradesh by six wickets to enter the semi-finals here on Saturday. Opener Desai was wellsupported by Snell Patel
(72), Cheteshwar Pujara (67 not out) and Sheldon Jackson (73 not out) as Saurashtra pulled off the
372-run chase by losing just four wickets in 115.1 overs. Saurashtra, thus, broke the previous highest run chase record of 371 set by Assam against Services in the 2008-09 season. Saurashtra will face Karnataka in the semifinals, while Vidarbha will lock horns with Kerala in the other last four match. Starting the day at 195 for two, still 177 adrift, Desai started brightly for Saurashtra. But he soon lost the other overnight batsman Kamlesh Makvana for 7, dismissed by Yash Dayal. The wicket hardly had any effect on Desai as he continued aggressively and scored 20 of the 33 runs in the day through boundaries. Desai, however, was dismissed by Saurabh Kumar, who had been wicketless in the match till then. The 19year-old nicked one to Uttar Pradesh wicketkeeper. His
116 came off
259 balls with the help of 16 boundaries.