India, June 23 -- At the risk of sounding uncharitable, it was as if two games of cricket were taking place at the same time, from two different ends.

With Jasprit Bumrah in operation, every ball was an event, a spectacle from the time the pace ace started his walk-up, gradually ramped it up into a stutter and then attacked the bowling crease with explosive energy. Every time he released the little orb, the air was pregnant with the possibility of a wicket.

He made the ball do wicked things - such as bowling from so wide of the crease from over the stumps and angling it into the right-hander with such finality that you couldn't see the ball do anything else except head down the legside. Until it developed a mind of its own, began straig...