'One hell of a bowler' - Amla, Kohli laud relentless Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah played his first World Cup match on Wednesday. Without any fuss, he walked and skipped to deliver vicious spells of fast bowling that broke South Africa's back early on. Virat Kohli and Hashim Amla, who has how been out thrice to Bumrah, weigh in on his mastery.

The battle at the nets: "If you'e even a little hesitant, he's all over you."

Kohli: "One thing with facing Jasprit is you have to play good cricketing shots and you have to back your technique against him. If you are hesitant even a little bit, (and) he senses that and he's all over you. If he senses someone's not enjoying the short ball in the nets, he will make sure that guy gets it in that session.

"So what you see him bowling in the match, he bowls exactly like that to us in the nets. He doesn't care who is standing in front of him. He will bounce people, he will try to get people bowled, he will york people with the new ball and that's the reason for his consistency. He doesn't change his game because he's in the nets compared to the game.

"He goes in with match intensity. He will do short and sharp, but those 15 minutes you have to make sure that you are on top of your game, otherwise it can be trouble. He keeps all the batsmen really, really focussed on what they need to do which is a back-and-forth thing. For a batsman, it's beautiful to face a guy like that who bowls with match intensity and he's looking to get you out, so when you play well against him you walk out with more confidence."

The mindset - "He's rushing people"

Kohli: "He believes he can nick people off with length balls. Whether it is a flat pitch, whether it is assisting bowlers or not, he can nick you off on any wicket. He has that belief that he can get batsmen out with good balls, even if the batsman knows what may come. It is so, so good to see when you see batsmen literally clueless against him and he's rushing people.

In bowler-friendly conditions - "Tests the patience of batsmen"

Bumrah: When you get a wicket which offers help, where you get the seam movement, you can be tempted to try different things, but you don't need to do that. You can bowl like in a Test match and test the patience of the batsman.

Standing in slips - "For the next 15 minutes, my hands were buzzing"

Kohli: "You know it's one thing to see a bowler bowl, and then when you catch the ball, you understand the heaviness of the ball and the pace. I caught that ball (catching Quinton de Kock in slips against South Africa), I promise you, for the next 15 minutes, my hands were buzzing (smiles).

"I told him you know, that I can feel the pain in my hands. That's how quickly he's bowling, the batsmen have literally no time on the ball. It's not like he's giving you any freebies. Forget it with the new ball anyway. When he's trying yorkers and he gets one wrong, that's a different case. But I think with the new ball he was absolutely outstanding, to get Amla out like that, I haven't seen that happen in one-day cricket."

Opponent's praise: "Hell of a bowler"

Amla: When I look around, him and KG [Rabada] are for me the best bowlers in the world. Firstly, they have good pace, are accurate, can bowl yorkers at almost at will and they can bowl at all stages of the game and in all format. He [Bumrah] is a hell of a bowler.

Kohli and Amla spoke at the post-match media briefings as well as to the host broadcaster on Wednesday.