IPL 2023, LSG vs SRH emotional rollercoaster: Harry Brook’s struggles, stubborn stumps, no place for special keepers & first over special Kyle Mayers

Under-utilised Adil Rashid
When all hopes were stubbed out, Adil Rashid bowled an over for ages. the time he strolled into his action, Lucknow Super Giants were only eight runs away from grabbing two points. And they had six overs to hoard those runs. The first ball was tossed up nicely and deceived KL Rahul, looking to sweep, in the flight, before the ball spun away a smidgeon to crawl underneath the bat. The ball landed a couple of inches shorter than he had anticipated and pinned him in front of the wicket.
The second ball was a trademark googly, that ripped, spun and blasted onto the pads of Romario Shepherd, who seemed gobsmacked the degree of turn. Nicholas Pooran glided the ball to the fence to deny a hat-trick as well as bring the target down to four runs. The next ball, a grubber, he almost dragged onto the stumps. He somehow kept the next two balls out. The over would not have mattered anyway–the last ball of the next over, Pooran whipped T Natarajan for a six to complete the win.
But the under-utilised Rashid, who bowled just two overs on a turner, walked back to the pavilion with a huge what-if tag glued to his jersey. He was criminally under-used.

Adil Rashid traps KL Rahul and Romario Shepherd LBW in back to back deliveries.
Live – https://t.co/7Mh0bHCrTi #TATAIPL #LSGvSRH #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/SYQ7Rjc9I8
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 7, 2023
– Sandip G
No takers for special ’keepers
So much so for all the pre-match conjecture about accommodating Quinton de Kock in the Lucknow Super Giants starting XI, now that the South African was available. Kyle Mayers’ performance in the first two games had made him almost impossible to drop, and the all-round skills of Marcus Stoinis made him an attractive option despite not doing much of significance till now, while Nicholas Pooran was considered a handy enough wicketkeeper. So in the end, de Kock had to sit out.
Their opponents Sunrisers Hyderabad had Heinrich Klaasen at their disposal, but kept the South African only on the substitutes’ bench, with Anmolpreet Singh trusted with the gloves. That may change when Sunrisers come out to field, but the decisions the two teams shows they are not always adamant on playing the best wicketkeeper in the squad in the 20-over format. A missed chance can be costly in any form of the game, but think tanks are always indulging in the trade-off between runs scored on one hand and runs saved and dismissals affected on the other, especially when the best stumper available is an overseas player.

Nicholas Pooran finishes things off in style.@LucknowIPL chase down the target with 4 overs to spare as they beat #SRH 5 wickets.
Scorecard – https://t.co/7Mh0bHCrTi #TATAIPL #LSGvSRH #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/STXF5KLMuI
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 7, 2023
Some consider a special wicketkeeper as a luxury, especially with the Impact Player rule in force, when any player can be brought on whenever needed.
– Tushar Bhaduri
Stump to stump @ suffocating good length
For the third time in as many games, LSG captain flung the new ball to Kyle Mayers, who possesses none of the intimidating aura of some of the dreaded new-ball shearers of the yore from his island, Barbados. Like Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner, or Wesley Hall and Sylvester Clarke. He is more like the 90s dibbly-dobbly version of Kiwi seamers, sleepily ambling into the crease like the first 100 metres of your morning jog, with an action that puts batsmen to sleep. It’s baffling that no one opens with a military medium pacer these days—it is the swing-merchant, tearaway or the mystery spinner. Maybe, LSG management were blown away a ball Mayers conjured to blast the stumps of Dewald Brevis, the young South Africa batsman who they call ‘Ba AB”. The ball, nonetheless, was a beast—landed a few yards outside the off-stump and viciously slithered into the batsman. So far he has not reproduced anything faintly similar this IPL—he keeps it stump to stump at a suffocating good-length. But that is it—no magic, mystery or genius. Yet, he bowls the first over, as if it is a ritual. And in the last two games, he has bowled the first over. A first-over special in the making?
– Sandip G

Krunal Pandya on song here!
Picks up two key wickets in as many deliveries.
Anmolpreet Singh and Aiden Markram depart.
Live – https://t.co/7Mh0bHCrTi #TATAIPL #LSGvSRH #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/33W5Uf4Gpv
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 7, 2023
Krunal’s two outta two
Two wickets in two balls has become something of a trend this season. Krunal Pandya orchestrated the latest instance. His first victim was Anmolpreet Singh, who hung on the back-foot to counter Krunal’s armer on a surface with variable bounce, missed the ball altogether and was trapped in front. Aiden Markram was the next—this time, Krunal bowled slower and fuller, spinning the ball away from Markram, who was first undone the inward angle from wide of the crease, before he was squared up on the drive the away turn, as the ball spun to hit the off-stump. It’s a ball he rarely bowls in this format—the armer is his staple— but one that could make him a deadlier proposition.
– Sandip G
Low bounce, slow turn, pitch perfect
Every Sunrisers Hyderabad batsman would suspiciously stare at the Lucknow deck when they got out. It was unlike any other pitch so far in the IPL this season, which has seen some batting beauties rolled out, a reason teams batting first in the first nine matches have averaged 190. Barely a week in, the tournament has seen three scores in excess of 200 and two in the 190s. But this one was more like a tribute to the Border Gavaskar Trophy that concluded last month. The bounce was low, the turn was slow; the keeper would often collect the ball on the bounce; batsmen struggled for timing, and the combined figures of the three frontline spinners read 12-0-67-6. As the game wore on, the bounce began to vary, from low to ultra-low. Resultantly, SRH could strike only 10 fours and three sixes, the lowest tally in any game. But a change of pitch could only make the IPL more watchable, and a low-scoring one would not have been better timed. Just when big-scoring games had begun to get boring.

ICYMI – A brilliant diving catch @MishiAmit ends Rahul Tripathi’s stay out there in the middle.#TATAIPL #LSGvSRH pic.twitter.com/uJkjykYlJt
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 7, 2023
– Sandip G
Young and chastened
He is the hottest prodigy in English cricket right now, but it seems Harry Brook is yet to crack Indian conditions. The 24-year-old from Yorkshire has four hundreds in six Tests, which would have prompted Sunrisers Hyderabad to shell INR 13.25 crore on him at the IPL auction.
Brook hasn’t been an instant success in the league, to put it mildly. Scores of 13 and 3 in his first two outings may take some gloss off his recent achievements, and if he is not able to turn it around quickly, the youngster could be bracketed with several of his compatriots who scored runs the truckload in other parts of the world, but struggled against spin on Indian pitches.
That assessment would be based on his two dismissals, bowled Yuzvendra Chahal’s back-of-a-length delivery that skidded on after pitching to defeat an attempted cut shot and rattle the stumps, and then being stumped a dance while advancing to Ravi Bishnoi on a ball that spun past his outside edge.
Brook is not the first high-quality young overseas batsman to struggle on their first encounter of Indian conditions. He is unlikely to have played a lot of high-class leg-spin bowling while growing up in Yorkshire.
– Tushar Bhaduri
Stumps refuse to fall
The strapping Fazalhaq Farooqi, the left-arm seamer from Afghanan, stood crestfallen in his follow through. The wicket-keeper Anmolpreet Singh stared disbelievingly at the Kyle Mayers’ off-stump. Mayers let out a chuckle. The previous ball, that clocked 135kph, had brushed the off-stump. But the pole remained firm, and the lights on the bails did not blink wild. It’s the second time in 10 games that the ball, a medium pacer’s ball too, had hit the stumps without durbing it.
Commentator and former New Zealand quick Simon Doull after empathising with the bowling ilk, came up with a reason: “Back in the end, when there were not too many cameras and mics fitted into them, the stumps were dug in loosely. Now with all the equipment, the stumps have become heavier, and so it has to be firmly dug into the ground. It’s not as loose as it used to be.” Farooqi, though, exacted revenge, as he soon had him caught at square-leg.
– Sandip G