Had Adam Milne not pulled out of IPL, Alzarri Joseph would have probably had to wait for another year to bag an IPL contract.
The decision of Milne not to play IPL saw Joseph being roped in by Mumbai Indians but there was no place for him in the playing XI in first few matches.
The decision of Lasith Malinga to fly to Sri Lanka to play domestic cricket in order to be in contention for World Cup saw gates being opened for Joseph, who shone right on his IPL debut.
Not just he created history by scalping six wickets, he also scalped a wicket off his first ball in IPL.
Joseph just gave 12 runs for his six wickets to bring Sunrisers Hyderabad on their knees and help Mumbai Indians defend a target of 137.
Owing to his spell, the middle-order of Surisers Hyderabad got exposed once again and it was a day to remember for Joseph.
“It’s a dream start, can’t get better than this. I just wanted to bowl to the plans. When they said I was playing, I decided to keep it simple and back myself. When I got my first wicket, I had a muted celebration since I was focused on the game that we had to win. The boys are really playing well, lot of hard work, so all we need to do is go to the park and show them what we can do,” he said after his Man of the Match performance.
His scalps included likes of opener David Warner, Vijay Shankar, Deepak Hooda, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Siddarth Kaul.
Rahul Chahar (2/21) and other bowlers supported him well from the other end that saw Sunrisers Hyderabad being under pressure during the chase.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians also found themselves in a spot of bother right throughout the innings but Kieron Pollard steered them ahead to a respectable total.
The West Indies’ all-rounder played a knock of 46* off 26 to stretch team’s score in difficult times and in the end, Mumbai Indian posted a defendable total on the board.
That also turned out to be a match-winning one.
With this win, Mumbai Indians have now climbed to the fourth position in the points table.
Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered the second defeat of the season and sit at second place.