MATCH STORIES
Follow UsHardik Pandya was always going to get booed in Ahmedabad the moment he showed his back to Gujarat Titans before the Indian Premier League Auction 2024 and moved back to Mumbai Indians. The pressure was on him as Mumbai’s captain, and he even made a couple of dodgy calls but had Jasprit Bumrah to cover up for his and other bowlers’ mess.
To be fair, this is what Bumrah has been doing for Mumbai in the last few years. They have had the best batting line-up in recent years but their bowling has been very mediocre, barring Bumrah. Even when Rohit Sharma was leading MI, he would fall back to the ace pacer whenever he found himself in trouble. And that’s exactly what Hardik did against his previous franchise.
Hardik, as captain, likes to do everything and we saw that when he led GT in the last two seasons. As expected, the right-arm bowler opened the attack on March 24 (Sunday) and started with a loosener outside off, with Wriddhiman Saha greeting him with a four. He leaked four boundaries in his first two overs as GT raced to 27 for no loss in three overs.
Kevin Pietersen, who was speaking on air, said: "Why is Jasprit Bumrah not opening the bowling? I don't understand this.” Sunil Gavaskar then added: "Very good question. Very, very good question."
Shubman Gill and Shah were looking good and Hardik had to call for help, bringing Bumrah into the attack in the fourth over. The 30-year-old, who missed the last IPL because of a back stress fracture, got into his run-up and started with his go-to delivery - a back-of-a-length, not giving the batter any room.
It might be a safe option for Bumrah but it’s his yorkers that always make everyone go crazy. You knew it was coming, Saha knew it was coming, but the wicketkeeper-batter could still not do anything about it. The ball came back in from just outside off and uprooted the middle stump. Bumrah made up for Hardik’s poor start and broke the 31-run opening stand.
Hardik then made the mistake of introducing Shams Mulani in the powerplay and Gill smoked him for 12 runs to keep the momentum in GT’s favour. Luke Wood, who conceded only six runs in his first over, was taken out of the attack and all of a sudden it was all spin to Gill and Sai Sudharsan.
Mulani, Piyush Chawla, and Naman Dhir bowled seven overs on the trot and leaked 68 runs. Even though Chawla dismissed Gill, GT were still well placed at 99/2 at the end of 11 overs. Having over bowled spin, Hardik got Gerald Coetzee into the attack and the South African seamer sent back Azmatullah Omarzai.
Bumrah came back for the next over and conceded just two runs. Hardik was using Bumrah like Rohit used him for years. One in the powerplay, one in the middle overs, and two at death. In Bumrah's absence last year, MI had the worst economy rate (11.8) and balls/wicket (3.6) in the final five overs. Meanwhile, Gujarat had the second-best scoring rate (11.7) in this phase.
Hardik and Mumbai knew it wasn’t going to be the same with Bumrah in the line-up despite the opposition having David Miller and Rahul Tewatia in their arsenal. Miller was batting on 12 off 9 when Bumrah brought out the slower delivery and had the South African caught at mid-off. A delivery later, Sai Sudharsan was also sent back. However, Tewatia made his presence felt and smacked Wood for 19 runs in the next over.
The left-hander has been one of the best finishers in the IPL but even he couldn’t get the better of Bumrah. The paceman kept Tewatia quiet and didn’t concede a single boundary in his final over. Bumrah eventually finished with figures of 3/14, becoming the first bowler in the IPL to take 20 three-plus wicket hauls.
“Jassi has been our No.1 bowler and he has been a champion cricketer. Last year, they did miss him. Excited to have him back full throttle,” Hardik knew from the start that Bumrah is going to be his biggest weapon this season and it has taken the paceman just one match to prove to everyone why he is head and shoulders above the rest.
