ESPNcricinfo Awards 2024 men's T20 leagues bowling winner: The extraordinary Mr Bumrah

If Bumrah is the king of all-format bowling, his five-for against RCB at the Wankhede Stadium is the jewel in his T20 crown. Despite punchy half-centuries from Dinesh Karthik and Rajat Patidar, Bumrah almost single-handedly pinned RCB down with his smorgasbord of variations.

New-ball swing: check. Yorker: check. Bouncer: check. Hard length: check. Slower ball: check. According to ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats, Bumrah's impact rating of 165.69 for the innings is the highest ever by a bowler in IPL history. By now, we're used to Bumrah blitzing through oppositions, but this was something else.

When Bumrah came on to bowl the third over, his first of the innings, Virat Kohli was looking to break free. Mohammad Nabi and Gerald Coetzee had tied him down to three off six balls. When Kohli shaped to swat Bumrah over the leg side off the third ball, the fast bowler hit a hard length and accentuated the inward angle with his unique action, cramping Kohli, who could only tickle the ball behind to the keeper for three off nine balls.

With Romario Shepherd, Shreyas Gopal and the captain, Hardik Pandya, himself leaking runs, Bumrah was brought back for the 11th and he responded with a tight four-run over.

Then, when he bowled his next over, the 17th, RCB were 149 for 4 with a set Faf du Plessis and Karthik in the middle. On cue, Bumrah changed the mood and tempo of the game with his yorkers, and full-tosses that too proved unhittable. Just ask du Plessis, who clobbered a full toss to long-on, or Mahipal Lomror who was yorked first ball.

Bumrah went bang bang in his final over, too, bouncing out Saurav Chauhan and Vijaykumar Vyshak to finish with a five wicket at an eye-popping economy rate of 5.25 in an innings where RCB went at almost ten an over. He took a wicket every 4.2 runs while getting hit for only two boundaries in 24 balls.

Mumbai Indians then razed down the target of 197 with almost five overs to spare.

The dismissal of du Plessis. Akash Madhwal had just been dispatched for 19 runs in the 16th over. After conceding two and a bye off the first two balls of the 17th, Bumrah hit du Plessis' bat hard with a quick full toss, as opposed to du Plessis hitting the ball, and had him holing out to long-on for 61 off 40 balls. Even an unbeaten 53 off 23 balls from Karthik couldn't save RCB after that.

2.25 The ratio between Bumrah's economy rate and that of the bowlers other than him at the Wankhede on the day.

2 Number of five-wicket hauls for Bumrah in the IPL. He became only the fourth bowler with multiple five-fors in the IPL.

"Yeah, it was a good day, you know, one of those days when mostly what I was executing was working."
-Jasprit Bumrah

"He [Bumrah] runs in with the same action, bowls a fast yorker, and then with that exact same action he bowls a slower ball that probably has the biggest variation. Then he has a really good bouncer. He has got so many options. You know you can bring him on and he can get you that wicket, but he can also be defensive [when needed]."
-Faf du Plessis

Imad Wasim
5 for 23 vs Multan Sultans, PSL final, Karachi
Imad had retired from international cricket four months before the 2024 PSL final, but his match-winning, title-winning five-wicket haul for Islamabad United against Multan Sultans presented his case for one last dance, at the 2024 T20 World Cup. Taking the new ball, as he often does in the shortest format, he struck twice in his first over and then added three to his tally in the middle and end overs to limit Sultans to 159 for 9. United went on to win their first title in six years.