It should surprise no one if an awestruck Gujarat Titans bowler got hold of the dew-laden ball that had been hit all over the park to get Suryakumar Yadav, the Mumbai Indians’ centurion, to sign it. And Sachin Tendulkar, Mumbai’s mentor, did not need to tell the rest of the squad: “Come and look at this. You’ve never seen anything like this.”
Suryakumar’s maiden century in the Indian Premier League (103 not out, 49 balls, 11 fours, six sixes) set off the fireworks earlier than event managers programmed them to go off at the Wankhede Stadium. On a night when only Rashid Khan (four for 30 and 79 not out, 32 balls, three fours, 10 sixes) turned up for Gujarat, Mumbai were runaway winners.
Mumbai would have envisaged winning by a bigger margin than 27 runs after Suryakumar provided ample insurance to the home bowlers against any effect that dew would have on the cricket ball in the second half. Two wins, bound together by Suryakumar’s mesmerising efforts, have transformed Mumbai.
They rose to third place in the league table after tottering in eighth position only a couple of games ago. Gujarat remained top with 16 points, a step away from confirming a play-off berth. But they will now have to scratch heads in search for a back-up plan for evenings when Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph and Mohit Sharma turn up flat.
Highlights package?
It cannot be overlooked that in the initial part of his innings, Suryakumar allowed himself to be dazzed by Vishnu Vinod’s strokeplay at the other end. Playing his first IPL game in four years, Vinod took the lead in turning the tide with some audacious shots off Joseph and Shami.
In fact, Suryakumar’s innings was neatly divided in two parts – the first half being played at rather comfortable pace, when he made 50 off 32 deliveries, and a frenetic second half when he blazed 50 runs off the final 16 balls he played. The final three overs were like watching the highlights package of the earlier half of his venture.
He had so many extraordinary strokes, and guided them so surely that Hardik Pandya, the Gujarat skipper who saved himself from being in Suryakumar’s crosshairs, could only applaud in admiration. It does not need pointing out that Suryakumar was severe on the quicker bowlers, but it was also significant that he scored 20 of the 30 runs conceded by Rashid.
Solid opening
Earlier, after being asked to bat first, Ishan Kishan (31) and Rohit Sharma (29) got Mumbai off to a flyer with 61 runs in the powerplay. There was some relief for Rohit, the Mumbai Indians’ skipper, when he reached double figures after five games. But he was drawn to edge a leg-break from Rashid, for Rahul Tewatia to take a sharp left-handed catch at slip.
Magic amidst mayhem
The magic of Rashid held its own either side of the Mumbai blitzkrieg. Four deliveries after foxing Rohit, he trapped Kishan on the sweep, leaving the left-hand batter so sure that he was plumb in front that he did not waste a review. And in his following over, Rashid made Nehal Wadhera chop the ball on to the stumps.
Of course, Rashid’s first spell in which he claimed those three wickets slowed Mumbai’s scoring, but not for long. Vinod, first, and Suryakumar batted as if there were no bumps on the highway to 200. They kept the scoreboard operators at the Wankhede Stadium busy with their aggressive batting.
New-ball bowlers strike to reduce role of dew
Any thoughts that Gujarat may have had of repaying Mumbai in the same coin vanished well before the ball could be impacted by the dew. At least one of Gujarat’s top-order batters needed to take the attack to the rival camp, but that was not to be as the scoreboard pressure combined with the new-ball bowlers’ accuracy proved too hot to handle.
The Roorkee-born Akash Madhwal broke Gujarat’s back with a double strike, beating Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill, the openers, for his best figures in four starts. Hardik nicked Jason Behrendorff and fell to a regulation catch behind the stumps, adding to Gujarat’s growing misery.
Home spinners share some spoils too
Vijay Shankar (29) and David Miller (41) arrested the slide for a while, but Piyush Chawla’s entry, with a teasing googly that snaked its way between Shankar’s bat and pad to hit the stumps, challenged Gujarat to bat through 20 overs. Miller and Tewatia strung together a 45-run stand before Madhwal trapped the Miller in front.
Chawla and Kumar Kartikeya, the left-arm spinner, picked up two wickets each as the match hurtled towards an early finish, but Rashid delivered some entertainment while prolonging the inevitable. He also ensured that Gujarat’s net run rate would not plummet too much.