The senior Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah achieved a milestone in his career on Sunday, taking four wickets on Day 4 of the fourth Test against Australia to reach an impressive tally count of 200 Test wickets. The highlight of the feat was his removal of in-form batter Travis Head, and then a superb spell of three overs that saw him take two more wickets.
Bumrah struck in the 34th over. He immediately removed Head off the first ball as Australia lost their first wicket for just 1 run. His next victim was all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who was also dismissed for a duck to bring about a collapse for Australia with three wickets falling inside 10 deliveries.
Continuing his good spell, Bumrah removed wicketkeeper Alex Carey in his next over, who had to make his way back to the pavilion for 2 runs. In a span of moments, the sudden flow of wickets saw Australia’s position slump from a comfortable 80/2 to an unlikelier 91/6.
Bumrah earlier took revenge on Sam Konstas, who was scoring freely in the first innings, as he bowled him out with a brilliant delivery once he posted 60 runs over 65 balls.
This was his 200th wicket in Test cricket, and he became the 12th Indian bowler to achieve that feat, the sixth pacer, joining the elite list of Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan. He is also the quickest Indian pacer to do so, averaging 19.56, higher than the legendary Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose. Bumrah has been in the thick of things through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with a haul of 29 scalps, way ahead of Australian captain Pat Cummins, who is a way off with 17 scalps.
While social media buzzed about Bumrah, Marnus Labuschagne went about his business unconcernedly as he once again proved a thorn in the Indian attack, making successive half-centuries against them. He shared a vital partnership with Cummins before Australia reached 135/6 at tea to extend the lead to 240. Earlier in the day, India had added just 11 runs to their overnight score before getting bowled out for 369, all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy ending a commendable 114.
