ipl 2020

Jasprit Bumrah of Mumbai Indians celebrates the Kolkata Knight Riders’ Eoin Morgan wicket with Rohit Sharma. (BCCI / IPL)

After a lackluster start to the season against Chennai Super Kings, the Mumbai Indians roared in style to beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 49 runs. In doing so, they ended their curse of the United Arab Emirates, winning their first match in this country in seven attempts.

It was a match in which the stars were lined up by the defending champions, who reduced the match to a one-sided match long before the end. Going to bat, their captain Rohit Sharma laid the bases, nearly batting in the innings to score 54 balls on 80. Helpful contributions from the top and middle management propelled them to a score of 195 which proved to be an uphill task for KKR with the captain. Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan, and Andre Russell come out of nowhere.

In the final analysis, the difference between the two teams was in their respective rhythm attacks. While KKR’s fast bowlers were wrong in line and length and looked rather mediocre, their IM counterparts, led by Jasprit Bumrah, were more hostile, determined, and energetic.

Rohit separates KKR pacemakers

Rohit can perform the shooting shot even while sleeping, or so it seems. The secret is your ability to choose the length of the delivery in advance. He does not have exaggerated foot movement but prefers to sit still in the crease, relying on his excellent hand-eye coordination. This is precisely why it is suicidal for fast bowlers to approach Rohit.

So is he a hitter with no apparent weaknesses? Not quite. The 33-year-old is at his most vulnerable early in his innings. If pacemakers can cast narrow lines and throw it a little fuller off the stump with a touch of swing, Rohit can be cut early.

This may seem like a simple and straightforward plan, but KKR’s pacemakers had trouble executing it in their first IPL season. They continued to briefly dig the MI captain. On a quiet track in Abu Dhabi, Rohit was happy to please him. He welcomed Pat Cummins to the attack by laying him down twice on the grassy banks. Rohit also didn’t forgive Russell, dismissing him for a six over the middle fence. The shooting shot may have been Rohit’s most productive shot on the night, but he also deployed his square cuts to devastating effect, especially against the inexperienced Sandeep Warrier.

It’s frustrating that KKR bowlers didn’t seem to learn from their mistakes. All this impressive hitting of six meant that up to three balls were lost in the stands. Overall, Rohit enjoyed a strike rate of over 250 against pacemakers, with six sixes scoring his hit.

If Rohit was operating from a safe base against the pacemakers, he showed nimble footwork against the spinners, especially against Kuldeep Yadav. A sublime shot over long against the Chinese bowler raised his 200 six in the IPL. It wasn’t like Rohit was doing the whole Mumbai scoring. He was ably supported by the effervescence of Suryakumar Yadav. Despite a streaky start, the IM No.3, which came in after Quinton de Kock’s early departure, brought a lot of styles. In addition to a dream series against Warrier, Yadav scored most of his runs on the side of the leg due to his propensity to keep shuffling over stumps. The duo fought back with a 90-run partnership that gave MI the desired boost. Yadav was unlucky enough to run out of 47, but his captain kept up the good work before he ran out of gas and gave Cummins a full Shivam Mavi pitch. Rohit’s expulsion in the 18th final meant that Mumbai was unable to break the 200-run mark despite the group of explosive players that followed.

Bumrah changes it the Mumbai way

Two supreme pieces of deception, a fast and scorching Yorker and a vicious kidnapper, released in the 16th over of the KKR manhunt by Jasprit Bumrah effectively extinguished their chances Wednesday night. The first, thrown at Russell, removed the stump from his leg. One would have expected an overwhelming surge of emotion from Bumrah. Instead, he remained remarkably stoic. Three deliveries later, he delivered a slower ball at 108km / h that sank and caught the outer edge of Morgan’s bat. The pacemaker finally gestured and for a fleeting moment, showed a bit of excitement. Given the circumstances of the game and the hitters to whom it was delivered, it turned out to be a brilliant act that altered the game.

Bumrah surprisingly looked washed out in IM’s season opener against Chennai Super Kings. But he more than made up for it with this splendid performance tonight to finish 2/32 from four overs. Bumrah hit the deck hard, extracting a sharp movement and a heavy bounce from the placid Abu Dhabi track. It wasn’t the only MI pacemaker to impress. Foreign professionals Trent Boult and James Pattinson, who opened the attack, looked equally powerful and aggressive. IMs are almost irresistible when their fast pitchers hit the belt and bowl well at the same time. On a hot and humid night, his three-step attack spawned a bowling masterclass to kick off his campaign on an emphatic note.