IPL 2023: MI look SKY-ward; RCB downward

How did Suryakumar Yadav react to the fall of the openers in the fifth over in a 200-run chase? Like a boss. In an admirably risk-free in-control knock, he plundered a weak RCB attack without much fuss to ensure the game was done with nearly four overs to spare. Even Faf du Plessis knew that 200 wasn’t going to be enough on this batting beauty. In the post-match chat, he would say with a wry smile, “You have to bluff! Tell your team that 200 is a great score and the ball is holding up!” His team could only manage 68 runs in their last eight overs, with just 47 coming from the last five; not the kind of finish they needed considering their limp bowling attack.
Surya’s risk-free classy violence
When Wanindu Hasaranga took out both Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma in the 5th over, the 200-run chase seemed to be at an interesting stage. But Suryakumar Yadav, helped along Nehal Wadhera, made a mockery of it with an audaciously risk-free classy knock.
There was no franticness in any of his shots when reacting to the ball, or any anxiousness in his pre-determined shots as well. More often than not until his fifty, he mostly reacted to the ball. Only against Josh Hazlewood in the 12th over did he seem itchy to get that lap shot going and after a couple of failed attempts, pulled that off as well.

🏆! 💙#OneFamily #MIvRCB #MumbaiMeriJaan #MumbaiIndians #IPL2023 @surya_14kumar pic.twitter.com/wD2V8LYMfG
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) May 9, 2023
RCB’s last throw of the dice came as early as 13th over when they got in Mohammad Siraj at Suryakumar. No luck. Suryakumar squirted one through point and thumped a slower one beyond long-on. It was Waghela who had kickstarted that partnership with a pulled six off Vijaykumar Vyshak and Suryakumar took over so smoothly and so stunningly that RCB were left gaping.
In the 15th over, he slog swept Hasaranga for sixes, in the 16th, he lapped Vyshak to sixes over fine-leg but he fell in the same over, going for another six. He would walk away with a smile on his face. Like a boss. And as he walked out, he was intercepted Virat Kohli, who hugged him and patted his head.
Ishan blasts off
The other day, on a pitch that wasn’t completely flat, Mohammad Shami had exposed Ishan Kishan, repeatedly teasing the outside edge with his seaming anglers. On Tuesday, Kishan didn’t have any such worries on a batting beauty at Wankhede. He charged out to Mohammad Siraj for a six over long-on and pulled the bouncer next ball over backward square-leg. He also thumped Josh Hazlewood over mid-on and whipped him to square-leg boundary. But the fiercest hit came in the first ball of the fourth over from Hazlewood. It was an absolute smack: a length delivery that disappeared far beyond the midwicket boundary. His 21-ball 42 had ensured that Suryakumar and Waghela could ease in without worrying too much about the run-rate.
Maxwell the boyish batsman
Glenn Maxwell has a boy’s view of what it is to be a batsman. The predetermination in most shots, the child’s confidence that he can pull off reverse-laps and such, the urge to whisk the ball to unconventional areas – he bats like someone raised on gaming platforms, and is perhaps the true representative of this generation. He has been at this for a decade now, and nothing much changed on Tuesday night. If anything, his batting has perhaps gone a bit more unattractive than before with his chops and whacks, but that’s a subjective opinion.

Lighting up the Wankhede💥
Fourth Fifty this season for Maxi! 🙌#PlayBold #ನಮ್ಮRCB #IPL2023 #MIvRCB pic.twitter.com/NeQMIDz9uC
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) May 9, 2023
All his trademark thwacks were there: the walk-into-the drives, the drag-pulls, the open-bat-faced chop-slices, but two special hits stood out amidst the carnage. Off the last ball of the 8th over, from Mumbai’s best bowler of the season Piyush Chawla, Maxwell stepped towards off even as he went down the track, and expertly waited for the tossed-up slow(ish) slider to arrive, before he threw his being into the lofted wallop over long-on. Even as he connected, he had that no-look shot, face peering at the ground rather than the trajectory, before he decided to cast a glance at the blurring white ball, chewing his gum.

The other shot was an outrageous reverse lap off Chris Jordan in the 11th over. It was full and outside off, and Maxwell reversed his bat, crouched and waited. The ball was exactly where he wanted – full and outside off, and he lap-chopped it up and over third man for a six for a nonchalant six. Even Jordan, who has the habit of reacting as if the shots against him would be caught somewhere in his fictional world, didn’t throw that ‘catch’ look. Even he knew that the ball was sailing into the night sky for a six. As did everyone in the chase, once Suryakumar got going.