Australia captain George Bailey may have been only half-joking when he described Pat Cummins as a rare beast in international cricket – an intelligent fast bowler.
Aged just 19, Cummins has already been man of the match in his only Test appearance last year in Johannesburg, hitting the winning runs after taking seven wickets in the game.
And on Friday night the Penrith product out-foxed feisty India No.3 batsman Virat Kohli in one of the finest overs of the 2012 World Twenty20 tournament.
Cummins put a bouncer past Kohli’s eyes before the newly crowned ICC one-day international player of the year could move a muscle, and next ball the super-confident Kohli took the bait and tried a big pull shot which he top-edged to mid-off.
Cummins also greeted Yuvraj Singh to the crease with a ripping bouncer.
India had started in brilliant fashion with a score of 1-50 in the first six overs, but Australia’s quicks Cummins (2-16 off four overs) and 22-year-old Mitchell Starc (1-27 off four) were crucial in pegging back India’s total to 7-140.
“Pat’s a weird one because he’s intelligent and you don’t get many intelligent fast bowlers do you for starters, particularly at 19,” Bailey said.
“He is a bit different. I spoke to him after that West Indies game and I probably felt like I was baby-ing him a bit too much.
“So in this game I gave him a licence to bowl to his plans a lot more purely for that reason. He is a good thinker.
“He’s got good skills.
“So he’s someone who in a short space of time you learn to trust that he’s going to execute exactly what the team needs.”
Bailey says Cummins, who was reaching speeds of around 147kph, is hurrying batsmen with his genuine pace despite the pre-tournament expectation that spin would dominate.
“It’s a nice thing to be able to see him bowl those three through the middle for us tonight because he is someone who when the key batsmen do come in, he can shake them up,” Bailey said.
“He’s got that bit of extra pace.
“But pace is only good if you’re bowling in the right areas and that was probably the most pleasing thing tonight, his control and his use of his change-ups.”
