IPL 2023: Piyush Chawla’s resounding comeback, Rohit Sharma and Tilak Varma nullify spinners and Jason Behrendorff takes off

DC just can’t catch a break
After the near run out in the penultimate ball of the last over—Anrich Nortje could not gather the ball pelted furiously Mukesh Kumar at short mid-wicket and break the stumps—David Warner gestured at Kumar that he should have thrown the ball on the full towards the South African seamer as Cameron Green was so far from safety. The last ball, Warner did exactly the same, and it turned out to be a make. As Tim David and Green were scrambling for the second run, he threw the ball full at Abhishek Porel, but it was so high that Porel had to leap and collect the ball head high. the time he whipped the bails off, David had leapt like an Olympic swimmer and completed the run. This time, a one-bounce throw at the keeper would have sufficed. Warner too perhaps realised this, as he kicked the turf in rage.
– Sandip G

Mustafizur course corrects
He might have erred bowling a pacy delivery first up in the 17th over of the chase to Rohit Sharma, but Mustafizur Rehman course-corrected immediately. Out came a slew of slower cutters, and Rohit couldn’t rotate strike. Then came the wicket taking ball, slower and wider, and Rohit reached out for the square drive but edged it. He took the DRS as he hoped it was a bump ball and the DRS replays momentarily took the focus away from what was a spectacular catch the wicketkeeper Abhishek Porel. Almost Rashid Latif-ish in the acrobatic dive, right knee first touching the ground to stabilise before the leap. Porel plucked it out of thin air, got up solemnly to throw the ball in the air and awaited the DRS decision.
– Sriram Veera

Three sizzling 4s and one shot of indiscretion
The short ball spooks Prithvi Shaw like a ghost spotting a cross. But gift him full or even good-length balls, he unpacks his minimalic drives. Like his first two fours. The first was a sleek straight drive—the tall leftie Jason Behrendorff striving for inward swing over-pitched and Shaw just offered a full-faced push that sent the ball scorching down the ground. The second was a splendid back-foot punch off another left-arm seamer Arshad Khan. A bit of width was offered and Shaw shifted to his back-foot and drove him on the rise through covers. Strangely, neither Khan or Behrendorff tested him with short-balls. Shaw then crunched another boundary, a mighty thump through covers off Hrithik Shokeen. And then, anti-climatically he swept Shokeen straight to Cameron Green at backward square-leg. Shaw was aghast at himself, and walked back to the dressing room looking utterly lost. He was looking in million-dollar touch, before a shot of indiscretion undid him.
– Sandip G

जिंकलो 💙#OneFamily #DCvMI #MumbaiMeriJaan #MumbaiIndians #IPL2023 #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/b3QvXyMTUP
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) April 11, 2023
Powering through before perishing
Manish Pandey’s stocks seemed to have plummeted. Last season, he could just hoard 88 runs in six innings; in the only game of this season he collected a duck. His struggles seemed to continue, as he fidgeted for a five-ball one. Then, he decided to go all guns blazing. He clumped Riley Meredith through long-on, a shot out of pure desperation. An under-edge pull brought him another four, and suddenly he was flying. He then latched onto the benign off-breaks of Hrithik Shokeen, picking him for a pair of boundaries, first a good ol’ biff through mid-wicket, followed a fierce whip through deep square-leg after stepping down the deck and dishevelling the bowler’s line. Usually, a timing-reliant batter, he leant on his power game to see him out of the rut. But his chancy knock ended on 26, held out at the deep, trying to power Piyush Chawla over the long-off fence. Not for Pandey, the power game.
– Sandip G

Piyush Chawla’s resounding comeback
Piyush Chawla does not look as fresh-faced as when he burst into Indian cricket as the teenaged-heir of Anil Kumble. For a long time, he seemed to res ageing, but finally the weariness of playing competitive cricket for 15-plus years has caught up with him. But he still remains a force in the IPL, which he showed ejecting Manish Pandey and Rovman Powell, the latter with a low-slung googly and the former with a tossed up leg-break. Pandey, he knew, was unleashing power on every ball, a slow, tossed-up ball was the ideal killer ball. So he hurried him with a couple of flat balls, angling-in and skidding, before slipping in the slower, leg-break that Pandey mimed to long-off. Powell was trapped in three balls, first a googly that he inside-edged onto the pads, then a slider that he swept and missed before another googly foxed Powell’s tepid prod from the crease. He was not finished, in his last over, he ripped in another googly to break the stumps of Lalit Yadav and return with figures of 4-0-22-3. In the big auction-churn last year, he had gone unsold, but he has made a resounding comeback. Perhaps not as fresh-faced as he once used to be, but as effective as he used to be.
– Sandip G

Behrendorff takes off
Jason Behrendorff’s IPL has never quite taken off, despite the gifts of being left-handed, blessed with height and skid, ability to swing both ways and a cool temperament. But his 19th over against Delhi Capitals could well spark his career. He took three wickets for just a run so that Delhi would not tear away in the last two overs. He was perhaps fortunate with Axar Patel’s wicket, as he could not adequately connect a leg-side gift. But the wicket of David Warner offered a fleeting glimpse into his talents. It was an expertly bowled leg-cutter that danced in the air. Warner, early into the slog, top-edged. Then Abishek Porel jammed the only run of the over before Kuldeep Yadav ran himself out and Porel held out at mid-off. Porel had given the charge, but Behrendorff had spotted and pulled his length back. His surname would invite curious glances. He is of German descent, and Behrendorff literally translates into “bear in the village”. In an interview to European Cricket Network, he had said that it was his “ancestors’ duty to chase bears back into the Black Forest when they threatened the villagers.” His great grandparents, though, had to flee the village during World War 1. The extra “f” was added on the end of his surname to avoid persecution, he explained.
– Sandip G

The regal Rohit is back
Two wary blocks in the first over and Rohit Sharma threw caution to the winds. Leaning onto the front-foot, he essayed the most silken of flicks, all touch and elegance. The next ball, the violent alter-ego of his batting surfaced, as he whled down the pitch and deposited Mukesh Kumar to the tier above deep square-leg. A dot ball offered Kumar some respite, but Kumar’s last ball was wrapped in glitzy presentation paper and Sharma cajoled it through mid-off. But none of these strokes would be stamped in the memory of the audience as much as the whipped six over long-on, off the rapid Anrich Nortje. Every aspect, from the assertive front-foot stride and the delicious bat-swing to the stillness of his body when the bat meets the ball and the regal follow-through, suggested that he had reacquainted with his T20 batting touch. To establish it further, he glided Nortje’s next ball to the third-man fence.
– Sandip G

Things we love to see! 🥹💙#OneFamily #DCvMI #MumbaiMeriJaan #MumbaiIndians #IPL2023 #TATAIPL @ImRo45 pic.twitter.com/I7N6iTQuaz
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) April 11, 2023
Sumptuous footwork, dexterous hands
On a surface that assed spinners – the ball gripped, bounced and at times even spat—Rohit Sharma and Tilak Varma expertly nullified them with sumptuous footwork and dexterous hands. Sharma, as he had displayed on rank turners over the years, is arguably the best player of spin-bowling in the country, but Varma was an unknown quotient. Instructive was how he defanged the threat of Kuldeep Yadav. Tall and with a long reach, he would jink down the ground to drill him down the ground for singles. Yadav would soon err on the shorter side, and Varma would rock deep into the crease, his back-foot almost hugging the stumps, would pull him mercilessly. It’s a risk-fraught shot to play against Kuldeep, who would occasionally spin his stock ball (one that goes away from left-handers) big, but Varma would nonchalantly unpack the pull. Soon after a pulled-six, he left his crease, Yadav pulled the length back, but Varma opened up his body and carved him inside-out over wide long-off for a six. The stroke pleased the captain, who kept applauding him.
– Sandip G