Jasprit Bumrah is at the peak of his powers. The India pace spearhead is almost toying with opposition batters with his masterful execution of swing and seam bowling these days, and he exhibited yet another fine example of that in the hosts's 2023 ODI World Cup clash against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. (Highlights | Scorecard | Pics | Report | Points Table | Full Coverage)
Bumrah picked up a wicket off the very first ball of the innings, becoming the first-ever Indian to achieve the feat in an ODI World Cup match. The right-arm fast bowler sent back the in-form opener Pathum Nissanka with an absolute jaffa to rock Sri Lanka straight away. Bumrah's first delivery was right on the money, a full ball that shaped into the right-hander and moved away after pitching to trap Nissanka dead in front. You can watch the video of the incredible delivery below.
After a deadly first over by Bumrah, his pace-bowling partner Mohammed Siraj immediately responded from the other end with three wickets off his first seven balls to leave Sri Lanka in dire straits. The new-ball duo was breathing fire and Sri Lanka were tottering at 9/4 after 6 overs.
Earlier, India scored a mammoth total of 357/8 in their 50 overs, thanks to top-class knocks from Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill. The duo combined for a pivotal 189-run partnership to take India to a strong position. Kohli eventually fell 12 runs short of equalling Sachin Tendulkar's record of 49 ODI centuries, but he broke another major ODI record of his. Kohli has now notched up 1000-plus ODI runs in a calendar year eight times, surpassing Tendulkar's record of seven such calendar years.
