Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond lauded Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer Mohammed Siraj for his fantastic opening spell against his team in their opening encounter of IPL 2023. The 29-year-old was exceptional with the new ball picking up a crucial wicket from Ishan Kishan.
Mohammed Siraj, who had a poor season for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2022, returned to his home stadium after three long years of producing a scintillating opening spell for his team. Speaking on Siraj’s performance, Shane Bond Praised his new-ball opening.
“You look at those first three overs from Siraj. He didn’t give any width. He used his bouncer beautifully, probably should have had Rohit (Sharma) out. He gave us nothing to hit and forced us to take some shots and got wickets from it. When a guy goes for five runs. We got maybe 29 in the powerplay on a small ground. We were always behind the eight ball,” Shane Bond said.
Mohammed Siraj picked up the wicket of Indian wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan in the 3rd over and also had the chance of picking up Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, where his chance was down by Dinesh Karthik, after a collision with Siraj.
“We had a long batting order; we tried to up the ante and got to 170. So, I think we know that if we can get a decent start, we can score all sorts of runs with the power that we have. That opening spell was brilliant. He was too good for us today,” Shane Bond added.
Coming into the match, Mumbai Indians found no match to Royal Challengers Bangalore as their team was well on top in all three departments with Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, and Akash Deep brilliant with the new balls for the Bangalore side. On the other hand, Mumbai Indians pacer Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, and Arshad Khan could not make an impact with the new ball for the five-time champions. With Mumbai Indians losing the contest inside 17 overs.
We Were Running Light On A Small Ground – Shane Bond
Shane Bond admitted that Mumbai Indians didn’t have enough runs on the board to defend and praised Tilak Varma for his brilliant batting (84* off 46) to help them post a decent total of 171 runs.
“170 on a very small ground, we left runs out on the park. Tilak Varma played brilliantly, couldn’t get much to go around him. 170 we knew we had a chance, but we were running light on a small ground on a good wicket,” Shane Bond added.
Mumbai Indians will take on arch-rival Chennai Super Kings in their second match on April 8 on their home ground and will look to turn things quickly around for their side. On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on Kolkata Knight Riders on April 6, in their first away in Eden Gardens.