Pat Cummins is a young fast bowler. He is ruthless. He is
red hot. He is sexy. He is the ideal man to deliver when the others fail. He has been doing such things time and again since he returned to Test cricket
after a long gap. He does it ether by piling up the pressure or taking wickets.
A genuine game-changer for Steve Smith.
Remember his deceptive pace to unsettle the Bangladeshi top
order batsmen last year at Mirpur? In a very critical juncture of the match on the
third day, Smith quickly realized the importance of bagging the scalps of Tamim
Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan. With Josh Hazlewood out of the match due to a
sore-side, Smith’s best option was Cummins.
In the third over of the post-lunch session, Tamim faced the
fury of Cummins. He breathed fire – full, straight and deceptive on a turning
track. The intent was so aggressive, it
dented Tamim psychologically. In a quick succession, Cummins chugged down the
big fish and then Nathan Lyon bagged the scalp of Shakib to make the hosts lose
their way.
Then, in the first evening of first Test at Brisbane last
year, Joe Root was trapped lbw by Cummins which allowed Australia to come back
and in the second Test at Adelaide, Cummins’ dismissal of Dawid Malan from
round the wicket, shifted the balance of the match towards Australia.
The story at Cape Town was similar on Day 1.
It was a flat deck with no movement off the pitch and slightly
off the air. Dean Elgar’s nuggety approach and AB de Villiers’ dominant
batsmanship only indicated, they would continue to bat, bat and bat out the
visitors out of the match. Especially, AB was scoring at a brisk pace. Boundaries
and singles came easily to add more agonies to Smith and his men.
Josh Hazlewood was
not at his very best while Mitchell Starc was a scattergun. On the other hand,
Lyon was tamed well by Elgar. The match was slipping away from Australia as Day
1 was all set to end with the perfect signature from Elgar and AB.
Smith wants to come back and he knew who can be his man to
bring back Australia back into the match. Enters Pat Cummins, who went
wicketless in his previous three spells, to wave his magic.
The tall and strong 24-year old had an immediate impact. He flummoxed
AB to pop a gentle catch to David Warner at mid-off. None was expecting such a
soft dismissal from a batsman who pummeled the inswingers easily towards
midwicket in the previous session. But it happened to the astonishment of
Capeown crowd. Cummins had stuck and then, he produced a memorable spell of
fast bowling to bring the smile back in the face Smith.
In the twinkle of an eye, South African batting lineup melted
by the heat of Cummins’ bowling. He pitched it short at pace and while pitching
it on the back of a length, he moved it away from fourth stump to let the
batsmen poke. Then, he brought the South African batters forward to entice a
drive by pitching it up further at pace. The young lad was fueled by adrenaline.
Faf du Plessis, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock and Vernon
Philander departed quickly. His eight-over spell fetched four valuable wickets at
the cost of twelve runs.
It was a spell of high quality and made each and everyone
realise about the abilities of Cummins – he is born to deliver when others
fail.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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