Hashim Amla is one of the most fluent batsmen in world cricket. He isn’t the kind to get stuck on a score, thanks to those wonderfully supple wrists that deflect the ball into gaps for ones and twos when the boundary is hard to find.

Quinton de Kock hates being tied down. He has every shot in the book, loves the aerial route and has a clarity of mind that allows him to hit the good balls to the fence.

And yet, against India, this pair managed only 35 runs in the first 10 over, and 71 in 17 before they were separated. Just how did India, for want of a better word, choke, the flow of runs?

On almost any given day, if you had to pick two opening bowlers from the Indian squad at the Champions Trophy, you would go with Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav. Or you might try R Ashwin at one end. Virat Kohli, instead, operated with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.

To say this pair were operating out of their comfort zone would be an understatement. Bhuvneshwar is an out-and-out swing bowler, and the ball has not deviated in this tournament. Bumrah is a death-overs specialist, yorkers his stock in trade and here he was with the new ball.

The key to their success was a quick grasp of the conditions, and switching to a defensive yet not negative mode of operation. For Bumrah, this meant pulling the length back, allowing that freakish straight-arm action of his to generate awkward bounce. Television does little justice to the manner in which Bumrah gets the ball to go after pitching. Commentators like to call this bowling a heavy ball, and you can see why. While other bowlers kiss the surface and the ball seems to skid on, Bumrah’s deliveries seem to take off after hitting the deck.

“When the conditions favour the batsman and the pitch is also true, you can’t really pitch the ball up and hope for swing. You have to contain,” explained Bumrah. “Even if you don’t pick up wickets, you can build pressure and help the person at the other end get a breakthrough.

Bhuvneshwar echoed Bumrah’s philosophy when asked how he was coping with the lack of swing in English conditions. “It’s difficult. The only thing you have to change is length. Everyone is bowling a bit ‘back’, compared to what they normally bowl,” said Bhuvneshwar. “Generally we always go for wickets in the first 10 overs when the ball swings, but now we look to contain them and then take wickets when pressure builds.”

If creating pressure was the name of the game, it certainly helped that India’s fielding was of the highest quality. The men in the circle were constantly on the ball, allowing the bowlers to stick to a line and length and drastically reducing the batsmen’s chances of rotating the strike.

What helped greatly was the fact that every time an opportunity presented itself, even if not via bat, in terms of a catch, India’s fielders rose to the occasion, pulling off run outs that pegged South Africa back. So much so that Kohli conceded that this was one of those rare occasions when India won a game on the back of their fielding.

“Yeah, could you say that,” said Kohli, while explaining how Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar set things up. “The pressure was built by the bowlers, and that I think resulted in those breakthroughs that we got in the field. It’s important to grab those opportunities.Before going out, we had a chat in the huddle and I said that I wanted to see everyone’s intensity go up, and that a conscious effort we have to make individually in such a big game, you need to start well.”

If the fielding was a result of increased intensity, the success of Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar came from a keen understanding of the situation, an evolution from bowling only one style of delivery and having the skill to adapt. “We don’t focus on that when you get labelled as death bowler or a swing bowler. You always try to contribute whenever you are given the ball,” said Bumrah. “You have to bowl according to the situation, be it at the death or in the beginning. We stuck to our plans and bowled good hard lengths. That was the basic plan. It was a good day and it all worked out for us.”

To say it was a good day was putting it mildly. After all, India’s batting often wins them matches, but it is not every day that two young bowlers step up to the plate as competently as the two Bs did.