India thumps England at the Oval as Jasprit Bumrah pens history

Only time will tell whether it was a pit stop for England in the lands of chaos or India’s juggernaut in the shorter formats of the game is simply unstoppable at the moment, as the Men in blue flexed their pace bowling muscles in the distant shores of London, flooring a mighty English batting lineup with consummate ease.

What was supposed to be a blockbuster in the making soon fizzled out into flames as the visitors razed over the hosts, spearheaded by an extraordinary spell from the Indian vice-captain, Jasprit Bumrah. Winning the toss, Rohit Sharma opted to field first on a surface that had a verdant cover and promised an early bit of drift.

Despite a steady start in the opening over from Shami, Bumrah produced a tempting inswinger that would draw Jason Roy into a drive only for the latter to completely misjudge the late wobble with the cherry clattering onto his timbre.

If Jason Roy’s dismissal was a prelude to the upcoming madness, Joe Root’s palpable shock on the face after being caught by Pant was the glass-shattering crescendo for the Indian congregation at The Oval. In a span of just 4 balls, Mohammed Shami would deal another telling blow to the English hopes of stability with a meandering inswinger that would catch whiff of Stokes’ bat and fly straight into the arms of a diving Pant.

Jonny Bairstow would put in an uncomfortable shift to stall the decline for a while but Bumrah would return with another peach to leave the man in form clueless. Liam Livingstone’s woes continued as Jassi adhered to the line of the stumps with the former cluelessly slashing at the flying cherry that would leave his timbre in smoke.

Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler would join forces to put in a staunch shift but the Indian bowlers were not settling for anything less than gold as Prasidh Krishna plucked out an absolute mid-air ripper to snuff out the English resistance.

Once Moeen Ali fell, it was an endless descent into madness for the hosts as they were skittled out for a paltry 110. Jasprit Bumrah would return to bag two more scalps that would stay witness to the stumps of David Willey and Brydon Carse headed on a promenade with a peach of a yorker razing through Carse’s defences while Willey’s outrageous enterprise of scooping Bumrah ending up in shambles.

On a surface that still exuded embers, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan took their time to settle down and once the ship was steadied, the Indian skipper brushed aside his manacles and came out all guns blazing, peppering his English counterparts to every nook and cranny of the ground.

In a surprising move, somehow the English bowlers kept on lashing a barrage of short balls to one of the finest strikers in the world and the result ended with an askew wagon wheel that produced 63 percent of Rohit’s runs in the fine-leg region, coming off the back of sumptuous hooks that has proven to be a downfall too many for many eminent luminaries of the batting craft.

Dhawan dropped anchor at the other end and when the opportunities came knocking, he dispatched the English bowlers with extreme prejudice.

Bumrah was awarded the man of the match for his 6-fer display, becoming only the second Indian bowler against England to rack up this herculean feat and the first ever Indian bowler to claim 6 wickets versus England in the den of the Three Lions.