Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has credited India’s convincing victory over Australia at The Oval on Sunday to the bowlers, citing that despite the pitch being batsman friendly, his teammates managed to get the best out of it.
Electing to bat, India rode on Shikhar Dhawan’s breathtaking ton coupled with captain Virat Kohli’s 82 off 77 deliveries to post a mammoth 352 on board. In return, the defending champions crumbled, as they had no answers to India’s bowling attack.
Both Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar picked three wickets each, while spinner Yuzvendra Chahal got two as Australia fell 36 runs short.
“This performance is very satisfying because if you look at the conditions, it is fully in favour of batsmen. There’s nothing much for the bowler and managing to get them out on this wicket has been a good boost,” Bhuvneshwar said during his interaction in mixed zone after Sunday’s match.
Getting the wicket of Steve Smith was arguably the turning point of the game, as Australia’s lower order failed to provide anything noteworthy soon after. Speaking about the wicket, the seamer said, “I bowled a slower one and he missed it. That’s how I got the wicket. In fact, shuffling across to the off-stump is his strength and he gets maximum runs that way. This time he missed. He missed that ball and it was a good thing for us,” he added.
He also revealed how the team prepared a blueprint for David Warner. The left-hander indeed scored 56 but seemed extremely anxious at times. And Bhuvneshwar thinks it is because the bowlers didn’t give him enough room to work upon.
“Since there wasn’t much help from the wicket, we didn’t wish to give them much room and we capitalised on it. That was our plan.
“The Oval has always been a good batting track and there’s not much for the bowlers. We knew, it would be a high-scoring match and we were mentally prepared. We just tried to make it difficult for the batsmen with slower balls and other variations,” he concluded.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Adrian Dennis
