The ongoing second test match between India and South Africa at the Wanderers has seen some commendable display of fast bowling on both the sides. Pacers have accounted for all but one of the 32-wickets that have come in this game so far.
Naturally, with such unrivaled conducive conditions for fast-bowling on the offer, the speedsters have relished each and every moment to revel in their aggression. One such speedster was the 21-year-old Marco Jansen. Playing just his second test match, the young South African quick took it upon himself to barrage the Indian batting tail with short deliveries.
Jansen barrages Bumrah with bouncers; India pacer hits back
Things, however, got particularly interesting when a continuous slew of bouncers from Jansen managed to irk Jasprit Bumrah. The extra bounce of the Wanderers’ surface caused a lot of Jansen’s bouncers to hit Bumrah on the arm; something that the latter wasn’t too happy about.
But the situation really came to a hot point when Jansen- after bowling yet another short-ball- gave Bumrah a death stare accompanied with some verbal volleys. Bumrah, to his end, retaliated back to the young Jansen with a few choice words of his own. The matter was mildly escalated, to a point where the umpires had to intervene and separate the two players. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see Bumrah and Jansen- players who shared the Mumbai Indians’ dressing room not too long ago- reveal their true colors of aggression to one-another.
Aukat se jyada ja rhe ho 🤬 pic.twitter.com/gJl7IBm5LL
— cricket wala ladka (@cricketwalaldka) January 5, 2022
“Learn to take it kid”- Dale Steyn to Jasprit Bumrah
While several fans enjoyed the little skirmish between Jansen and Bumrah, former South Africa fast-bowler wasn’t quite pleased with Bumrah losing his cool. Over on a Twitter thread with a former South Africa coach, Steyn recounted how Bumrah got into a similar spat about facing bouncers with England’s James Anderson a few months back. He further recommended Bumrah to ‘learn to take the aggression’.
I swear I remember Bumrah doing the same thing to a Mr James Anderson not too long ago.
Learn to take it kid.— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) January 5, 2022
Well, regardless of how founded/ unfounded Bumrah’s reaction was, he will have a good chance to avenge himself on the final two days of the match. With 8-wickets remaining, Bumrah and India will hope to get a few early strikes to dent the hosts in their chase of 240. It won’t come easy though, as captain Dean Elgar and Rassie van der Dussen look in good rhythm to polish off the remaining 122-runs.
Brief Scores: South Africa 229 and 118/2 (Elgar 46*, Ashwin 1/14) need 122 runs vs India 266 and 202.
