Mumbai Indians pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah displayed a stunning death bowling effort to take his team home against Gujarat Lions in a thrilling Super Over finish on Saturday (April 29).
Chasing a modest target of 154, Rohit Sharma’s men were cruising along at 104 for 2 in 13 overs before a flurry of wickets allowed the Lions to claw their way back into the match. James Faulkner began the Lions’ comeback sending back Rohit Sharma and the well-set Parthiv Patel in the 14th over. He was well complimented by Basil Thampi who took 3 for 29. With 11 runs needed from the final over with 2 wickets in hand, Mumbai Indians went off to the possible start with Krunal Pandya hitting Irfan Pathan for a six on the very first delivery.
But a single and a brilliant run-out by Ravindra Jadeja kept Lions in the hunt. The next two balls went for three runs, bringing down the equation to one run from the final delivery. However, Jadeja effected another brilliant run-out on the final delivery as Mumbai Indians were all-out for 153 off the final ball.
The One Over Eliminator saw Mumbai Indians score 11 with Kieron Pollard hitting Faulkner for a boundary and a six. The target was not that big considering the batsmen who came for the Lions- Brendon McCullum and Aaron Finch. Moreover, a no ball and a wide in the first three deliveries only made it worse for Bumrah but the India pacer displayed brilliant variations of slower deliveries including a few in the blockhole as the batsmen could manage to score only 6 runs.
Speaking after the match, the right-arm pacer admitted that he was under pressure but focusing on just positive things made him come out with flying colours.
“This was the first time when I was bowling a super over. There is always pressure because there were only 11 runs but at that time you try to keep a calm head, not focus on negative things. I was just focusing on the positive aspects, thinking about the plans we made,” he said at the post-match conference.
When asked about the suggestions and tips he received from the dressing room, the Gujarat-born bowler said:“They just told me back my skills, be confident, this is just another over, don’t take extra pressure on yourself. Be confident, be calm and try to execute your plans.”
This was the second match in a row where Mumbai Indians made a mess of a low total. In their previous encounter against Rising Pune Supergiant when they were chasing 161, they went on to lose the match by 3 runs and were in a similar position against the Lions too before they somehow manged to tie the scores.
Bumrah said that his team is working hard and hoped to see a better batting performance in the coming matches.
“We are working hard, we are doing well. We started well and we have done well in the previous matches as well. This is cricket, someday you will click someday you won’t. We are working hard, we are training well and we are looking to improve every time we play. Hopefully, in the next matches we will be able to do well in the batting department as well,” he said.
Speaking about his practice sessions, Bumrah said:“I don’t practice like Malinga who does it by keeping a shoe. I practice with him on how to bowl yorkers consistently but I always have a death bowling session whenever I do the practice session because it’s very important because this is the time where I bowl for Gujarat, India and for Mumbai Indians.”