Jasprit Bumrah reveals what went through his mind in the penultimate over while bowling to Rahul

Mumbai Indians (MI) were down and out halfway through the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year and nobody gave them a chance to come back. But the team has held its nerve at the crucial stages in the last few games and has clinched victory from the jaws of defeat. They were not able to do the same in the first few matches and lost most of those in the last over. However, the hero of the last game Jasprit Bumrah was delighted after the victory and revealed the plans he had in mind while bowling in the death overs.

Kings XI Punjab had nine wickets in hand as the chase went down to last 4 overs. The victory seemed inevitable for them and the exit door for the defending champions was slowly opening. But Bumrah came to bowl the 17th over and changed the complexion of the game completely by picking the wickets of Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis in quick succession. He scalped the huge wicket of KL Rahul, who was looking to take his team to the victory, in the 19th over which eventually won the game for his side.

It looks like a fairytale

Jasprit Bumrah, while speaking in the post-match press conference, revealed what went through his mind while delivering the most important penultimate over of the game. He executed his plans perfectly in that over and conceded only 6 runs while picking the crucial wicket of Rahul. “No, it was not that when we got wickets (off the bouncers), we were not looking to take wickets but because I wanted to create pressure so wanted to give as little runs as I could (to defend) to Mitchell (McClenaghan) in the last over so that was the plan,” he said.

Mumbai now have a realistic chance of qualifying for the playoffs by only winning against Delhi Daredevils (DD) in the last league game given their beat NRR. This is not the first time that they have managed to sneak in at the backend of the tournament and even the pace bowler believed that it is not always easy to focus when the team is losing continuously.

“It (looks like a) fairy tale. It looks very easy, at the last moment we come and do, but it’s not always like that. It is difficult, we were preparing like that since the first game but we were not able to close off games. Now after the half way stage we were able to close games, so that is the thing we were focusing on. We are not focusing on what is going on, we just wanted to close games so we are focusing on our team and on the things we want to do,” Bumrah added.

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