Mumbai Indians pacer Jasprit Bumrah was adjudged Man of the Match for his exceptional bowling figures against Delhi Capitals. While defending 201 runs target, he bowled one maiden over while snared four wickets in his four overs quota. But the renowned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar believes the player of the match should be given to a Mumbai Indians.
He reasoned that if Mumbai Indians hadn’t set a mammoth target, the defending champion would not have registered a comfortable victory.
Asked to bat first, Rohit Sharma was out for a golden duck, but Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav started the rebuilding process. However, both the batsmen were sent back as soon as they ticked 100 runs on the board.
DC would have thought they had got the game in their favour after picking the wicket of Kieron Pollard for a duck. But Ishan Kishan (55* off 30) and Hardik Pandya (37* off 14) played rocket-fueling innings to give 201 runs target to struggling DC.
Sanjay Manjrekar believes MOM should have been a batsman:
Sanjay Manjrekar noted that the four-times IPL winners had sealed the game with their batting even though bowlers had given prolific contribution.
“When adjudicating the MOM award one must look at how the game was placed at the halfway stage, MI had almost sealed the game with their batting. So the match-winning impact was made by batsmen. With due respect to Boult & Bumrah, MOM should have been a batsman,” Sanjay Manjrekar tweeted.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians have entered the final of the IPL for the sixth time, but their opponent is yet to be decided. The team winning the second qualifier match will face the defending champions on November 10.