Giant leap by Rahul & Co
KOCHI: In hindsight, Rohit Sharma could be forgiven if he wanted to reconsider throwing the new ball to part-time spinner Tilak Varma instead of Jasprit Bumrah, to have a go at KL Rahul after Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bowl against Lucknow Super Giants at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Such is the predicament of the five-time champions these days that they find themselves under scrutiny for their every move, every misstep. A sixth defeat in as many games has now put them under the scanner as Mumbai are the only team yet to register a victory in this edition with the Super Giants beating them by 18 runs.
smashed an unbeaten 103 from 60 balls
against Mumbai Indians at Brabourne
Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday | Sportzpics
While Mumbai are traditionally slow starters, the question arises on whether their winless run prompted the think tank to try something different against the Lucknow outfit on Saturday. It was a big call from Rohit as a match-up between Bumrah and Rahul at the start of the game could have changed the narrative in their favour.
After all, Rahul was out for a golden duck in Lucknow’s last game against Rajasthan Royals while facing Trent Boult, and it was a similar story against Mohammed Shami when the Giants took on the Gujarat Titans.
Clearly, it was a vulnerability worth trying to exploit, especially when you have a weapon like Bumrah in your artillery. Instead, it was Varma who bowled the first over. By the time Bumrah was introduced in the fourth over, Rahul had settled down in the middle and managed to navigate his spells in a cautious manner. Unsurprisingly, Bumrah finished as the most economical bowler, but went wicketless, as Rahul and company targeted the rest of the bowlers to post an imposing total of 199/4.
The bulk of the scoring was done by skipper Rahul who went on to hit an unbeaten 103 (off 60 balls) in what was a landmark 100th game for him in the Indian Premier League. This season, teams seem to have worked out Mumbai’s bowling attack. See out Bumrah’s overs and then go after the rest of the bowlers which was the approach taken by Lucknow. Such was the onslaught that Tymal Mills ended up conceding 54 runs from his three overs and Fabian Allen ended up leaking 46 runs from his four. Rahul was putting up a batting masterclass in an innings laced with exquisite stroke-play as he blew Mumbai away. What also didn’t help Mumbai’s cause was that there were many instances of misfields as the runs kept flowing. If Mumbai’s illustrious history follows them everywhere, causing them to experiment and try and force the issue, Lucknow and Rahul look to be enjoying the absence of any such weight of expectations.
At the start of the season, few would have predicted Mumbai to struggle and IPL new entrants to be occupying the play-off spots. But once Rahul and the rest of the batters laid the foundation, a disciplined bowling effort and excellent work in the field helped Lucknow inflict a sixth straight defeat on Mumbai to move to second on the table.
Brief scores: Lucknow Super Giants 199/4 in 20 ovs (Rahul 103 n.o, Pandey 38; Unadkat 2/32) bt Mumbai Indians 181/9 in 20 ovs (Suryakumar 37, Brevis 31; Avesh 3/30).