Daniel Sams bowled a death bowling masterclass, mixing wide yorkers, slower deliveries, and hard length balls. the BCCI
The Mumbai Indians survived IPL 2022 by a hair’s breadth after keeping their nerve in a five-run win over the Gujarat Titans.
Thrilling death bowling
With only 9 runs to defend in the final over, Daniel Sams bowled a masterclass of death bowling, combining wide yorkers, slower balls, and hard length balls to dismiss David Miller and Rahul Tewatia. After the first two balls failed to produce a boundary, the latter was run out in the third, pushing for a second. Miller had two chances to get a six to win, but both were missed as Sams hit outside of his hitting arc. Was it always a challenging pursuit?
Gujarat, on the other hand, led for three-quarters of the race. The run out of Hardik Pandya (24 off 11) in the 18th over – who, like Tewatia, was caught barely short without putting in a dive – gave MI a foot in the door and enabling them to complete a spectacular turnaround following Gujarat’s blistering start.
What happened in the beginning?
After a brilliant opening stand of 106 in 12.1 overs by Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill, there were few glitches. Early in the powerplay, the former was the aggressor, scoring 37 off 54 in the first six overs and reaching his fifty in 34 balls. As he blazed away against Jasprit Bumrah, Saha epitomized Gujarat by striking above his weight. Over the course of a couple of overs, he drove, flicked, pulled, and lofted Bumrah, scoring three fours and two sixes against the pacer.
From there, how did MI get it back?
Murugan Ashwin caught both Gill and Saha in the deep in the 13th over, turning the tide. Gujarat were in trouble when Sai Sudharsan knocked over his stumps with the bat, requiring 10-an-over in the final four overs before the final collapse. It was uncannily identical to MI’s experience earlier in the day.
Why did it resemble MI’s innings?
Mumbai only scored 80 runs in the last ten overs of their innings, finishing with a total of 177. Despite Tim David’s best efforts, they concluded with a score that looked much below-par on a pitch that was flat and with dew settling in.
Tim David did what?
After stepping in after the fall of Kieron Pollard, who had battled to 4 off 14 balls, he single-handedly raised the scoring rate, smashing four sixes in a 21-ball 44. When Pollard came in, Mumbai had 111 on the board after 12 overs, but his pace was tying him down before Rashid Khan cleaned him out with a leg break. Tilak Varma (21 off 16) was also kept quiet by Rashid, who finished with figures of 2 for 24 in 4 overs. David had the task of bolstering the innings at the other end, which he accomplished with clean lofts down the ground against the pacers.
How about we begin?
After being put in to bat, Mumbai got off to the best possible start. On a terrific batting pitch, Rohit Sharma rediscovered his hitting form and set the tone early, scoring 42 of MI’s 63 runs in the powerplay. Rohit Sharma made quick work of Alzarri Joseph, driving, flicking, and lofting him for four fours and a six in only two overs.
As he sped away, he also managed to scoop Mohammed Shami for a six. Ishan Kishan, his partner, was steady at first but got lucky with a few of inside edges going to the boundary. He, too, kept the pace up by carefully selecting his targets. Before Rohit fell, the tandem piled on 74 points, missing a reverse sweep against Rashid. After a couple of cheap dismissals – Suryakumar Yadav lofting to long on and Ishan being tricked by a slower one – MI were pegged back before their middle-overs slowness. Their bowlers, on the other hand, dug them out of the hole and kept them from being knocked out.
Gujarat Titans 172/5 (Wriddhiman Saha 55, Shubman Gill 52; M Ashwin 2-29) were defeated by Mumbai Indians 177/6 (Ishan Kishan 45, Tim David 44*, Rohit Sharma 43; Rashid Khan 2-24) by 5 runs.
So, what’s next?
On Monday (May 9), a resolute MI will play KKR at the DY Patil Stadium, while GT will face LSG in Pune on Tuesday (May 10).