In Yuvraj Singh’s first game of this IPL, the southpaw struggled to time the ball and his stay in the middle against the Gujarat Lions were pretty agonizing. A 14 ball knock off 5 was the last thing he needed after coming from an injury. Being the champion and lion he is, he roared back in form with a charged up an assault against the Mumbai Indians at Vishakhapatnam.
Yuvraj might not have got a half century or a big score, but his 39 off 23 was priceless from the team’s point of view. His big hits relaxed Shikhar Dhawan at the other end and soon it was because of Singh’s fireworks, the Sunrisers gathered momentum further in their innings. Some of the shots from Yuvraj were timed to perfection.
Post his side’s 85 runs victory over Mumbai Indians, Shikhar Dhawan stated that Yuvraj’s contribution was simply priceless. “Once Yuvi paaji was also set, we knew that we have to change the gears and get going,” said Dhawan. “Yuvi paaji played amazingly well and the way he was striking the ball, especially considering he is coming back after injury, he was middling the ball really nicely. I was telling someone the other day also that hopefully he will strike big for us and he did today. Of course, that made a huge difference to reach our total,” said Dhawan.
Dhawan was also quick to praise the efficient bowling attack of Sunrisers. “We’ve got a good bowling unit. Things are working for us now. The decision of choosing the XI is up to the captain and the management. Of course, we’ve got a great fast bowling line-up. When we feel that there’s no turn on a wicket, then we decide to go ahead with pacers. For turning pitches, we’ve got spinners in our squad who we can include in the playing XI. The captain and the team staff must’ve thought that there was no turn, and hence we fielded five seamers,” said a confident Dhawan.