Jamieson times his Kohli battle to perfection
MUMBAI: During the Indian Premier League, India skipper Virat Kohli had tried to get Kyle Jamieson to bowl to him with the Dukes ball in the Royal Challengers Bangalore nets, but the New Zealand bowler declined.
The towering pacer obviously wanted to keep his tricks concealed, and unleash them when he would be up against Kohli in the Word Test Championship final. The opportunity came early in the match as India were put into bat at Southampton. And Jamieson did deliver the most important wicket when he nailed Kohli in front of the wicket with an incoming ball on Sunday morning.
It was a decisive moment in the game.
According to The Crizviz Analyst: “Kyle Jamieson only bowled one delivery to Virat Kohli that would have hit the stumps—the one that dismissed him.”
The Indian batsmen knew the challenge of facing the ball coming from an awkward height. In only his second Test, at the Hagley Oval, Jamieson had run through India’s batting line-up for his first five-wicket haul. How good he has been when the conditions offer help for the pacers can be seen from NZ winning his first six Tests, all played at home. The tally stands at six wins in seven Tests after the draw against England at Lord’s.
Jamieson, who stands at six foot-eight inches, was the most impressive bowler on Day 2 (the first day was washed out), but only had the wicket of opener Rohit Sharma as reward for his controlled seam bowling.
The Cricviz Analyst tweeted: “At an average of 2.0 degrees, Kyle Jamieson has actually found the least swing of any NZ bowler in this Test. However, he’s averaged 0.91 degrees of seam movement—the most of any bowler.”
A quick learner, he made the adjustment on Sunday by pitching the ball further up for a more probing length, which NZ spearhead Tim Southee focuses on. The rewards were quick as he took his fifth five-wicket haul in a promising eight-test career which started with the home Tests against India in 2020. He took 5/31 bowling 22 overs.
New Zealand used the two Tests against England (they won 1-0) as a perfect warm-up for the WTC final, and no one benefitted more than Jamieson. Though he picked the wickets of England skipper Joe Root and Dom Sibley, he appeared rusty in the Lord’s first innings. But, a return of rhythm was evident as he bowled 26 and 15 overs in the two innings.
The benefit of those spells was seen in the way he started against India at Southampton when openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill had put the NZ new ball bowlers on the backfoot with attacking batting. Brought on first change, Jamieson bowled nine maidens in his 14 overs on the day to make scoring runs a grind for the batsmen.
With Gill looking to advance down the wicket to negate the swing, the tall bowler rattled the opener’s helmet grille with a sharp bouncer. He then induced a false stroke from Sharma (34) with a ball pitched outside offstump to be caught at third slip for the first breakthrough.
India still had a slight upper-hand when they resumed on 146 for three on Sunday. With NZ desperate for early breakthroughs, Jamieson delivered again in the big match, to end India’s innings at 217. With 14 wickets in five innings against India, he remains the main threat for Kohli and Co in their quest for the ICC Test champions title.