Ashutosh nearly pulls a rabbit out of hat against MI

Ashutosh showed his prowess as Impact player with a 28-ball 61 to threaten a heist but Mumbai Indians’s heroes Jasprit Bumrah and Gerald Coetzee ensured Suryakumar’s 78 didn’t go in vain. opponents even as he has often done.

Whenhisusualpartner-in-crimeshashank Singhfell,deceivedbyasloweronefromjasprit Bumrahinthefirstballofthe13thover,thesituation looked bleak: Punjab needed 82 from 47 balls with just three wickets in hand.

Butinthesameover,ashutoshwentdown on his knee to sweep Bumrah for a stunning six, roared and tried to catch the eyes of any opposition player looking his way. Rohit Sharma would oblige him with an indulgent smile.healsounfurledacoupleofthrillinghelicopter pulls for sixes off Hardik Pandya and Romario Shepherd, standing on bent knees and not moving at all ala Henrich Klassen but justgettingintopositiontogethishandsworking. In the 16th over when he smashed two sixes off Akash Madhwal — first over long-off and second reverse-lapped over third man — thegameseeminglygottighterastheyneeded 36from26ballsbutmumbai’sbowlingheroes returned to seal the game.

First,bumrahbowledabumper-filled17th

Kamleshwar Singh over to give just three runs. And when Gerald Coetzee, who had taken out two wickets with the new ball just like Bumrah, induced Ashutosh to pull a bouncer to the deep midwicket fielder, the game turned again. Punjab needed just 25 from 17 balls then, and 11 from the last over, but didn’t have the batsmen to takethemovertheline.theendcameviaarun out as Kagiso Rabada, who had hit his first ball for a six off Pandya in the penultimate over, couldn’t get back in time to keep strike.

Surya takes down Rabada

Recently Henrich Klassen, who used to try to copy Ab de Villiers before he realised the futility of it, would talk up his idol’s stand-out trait. “The genius of his work was that he can know exactly where the bowler will bowl about70-80%ofthetime,andthat'snotsomething you can teach or learn from anyone.”

Sometimes, Suryakumar Yadav too gives the same vibes. If he isn’t sure where the bowler will bowl, he has this ability to fit the ball in his framework at least. One does get the feeling he knew what Kagiso Rabada was goingtobowlinthe8thover.ahit-the-deckbackof-length homing in on the off stump. Just beforerelease,butnottooearly,suryakumar,who was already on an off-and-middle guard shuffled just a touch towards off. And that wristy swat-sweep of his sent the ball soaring over backward square-leg boundary.

In the 16th over, there were a couple more moments against Rabada. He backed outside legandrabadafollowedhimwithalengthball. Suryakumar didn’t mow it down leg but went inside-out over extra cover. If the 8th over was seemingly about his anticipation of what the ball might be, this seemed a moment where hefittedtheballinhisframeworkofshots.next ball, he shuffled towards off and when a full toss on the middle arrived, he put it into backward square-leg stands.

The sweep shot off pacers was the signature shot of England’s Mal Loye, who would make a late debut at nearly 33 after a string of injuriesandsweepbrettlee,noless,foranoutrageous six in his first game at the Gabba in 2006. Likewise, Ashutosh’s swept-six off Bumrah would be a highlight of this season.

MI 192 for 7 (Suryakumar 78, Harshal 3-31) beat PK 183 all out (Ashutosh 61, Shashank 41, Bumrah 3-21) by nine runs

Ashutosh played some audacious shots against Mumbai .