Daredevils breach Mumbai fortress, win lastball thriller
BREATHTAKING FINISH Jason Roy hits unbeaten 91 off 53 balls to guide visitors to first victory of their campaign
to get the last one over the close-in fielders to guide Daredevils to their first win of the IPL this season.
His unbeaten 53-ball 91 knock included six fours and as many sixes.
Roy has been waiting in the wings since last season. He made his IPL debut with the Gujarat Lions in 2017 but only featured in three matches as Aaron Finch and Brendon Mccullum opened the batting for the Lions. Picked by Daredevils in the auction, he had to wait once again as New Zealand’s Colin Munro was preferred over him in the first two matches. For Mumbai Indians, it was their third defeat on the trot and in all three matches they were in the contest till the last over.in the end, it all came down to clinging onto the momentum. Daredevils managed to do so but Mumbai failed.
Mumbai had a great opening partnership between Suryakumar Yadav (53) and Evin Lewis (48) of 102, their best in IPL history. They scored 84 in the powerplay, once again their best- ever in the IPL but after that their innings somewhat faltered. A score that at one point looked to be zipping past 200 was restricted to 194.Ishan Kishan (44) was only one after the departure of Suryakumar and Lewis managed to make some significant contribution the rest — Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, D Christian 3-0-35-2; R Tewatia 4-0-36-2; G Maxwell 3-0-21-0. Hardik Pandya — weren’t that effective.for Daredevils, Roy did carry the bat all the way but received good support from Rishab Pant (47) and Shreyas Iyer (27).Daredevils pegged back Mumbai, who at one point were running away with the game. They also picked crucial wickets to break their momentum. Two young spinners have cornered the limelight in the last couple of days of the IPL. Yes, Rashid Khan for SRH and Washington Sundar for RCB have been simply brilliant!
Who would have thought that spin would be such a game changer when T20 cricket as a concept was born? The most crucial player for any franchise, along with an explosive batsman now is that cheeky spinner.
Rashid Khan got the Man of the match award on Thursday night against Mumbai Indians. His figures were four overs for 16 runs and one wicket. And you know what was most sensational about that spell? His spell had 18 dot balls. That’s three overs of dot balls!
Rashid is an interesting bowler — his leg spin and googly actions are very similar. The disadvantage with this is that that they don’t turn big but a big benefit that he gets out of this in T20 cricket is that the two deliveries are hard to decipher from each other.
This becomes a nightmare for batsmen desperate to hit every ball out of the park.
He has a swift delivery action so all this happens very quickly, making it even more arduous for batsmen.
But what makes Rashid a rare spinner is that even when he is bowling mostly over 90 kmph he gets that ball to turn. I haven’t seen any other spinner do this. Turn is normally the first casualty when a spinner bowls quick.
Washington Sundar too is an exception in T20 cricket. He represents the dying breed of finger spinners. With no mystery ball or big variation, he is your classical off spinner who only uses the floater.
His success and impact as a T20 spinner is a mystery really. And the captain does not have to worry about bowling him to right-handers either. Washington holds his own against both right-handers and left-handers. So what makes him tick? My take is his high release point makes it difficult for batsmen to get under the ball when it’s coming from a height downwards all the time on a certain length.
He does not turn it much so the only good option for batsmen is to go straight but not many batsmen take this route when trying to hit an off spinner for a six.
Above all, under Washington’s very simple and calm demeanour lies a very sharp cricket mind that anticipates the batsmen’s intentions. Rashid and Washington are actually bowlers who can bring the purists back to watch T20 cricket.