IPL 2022: How Shami celebrated a wicket sitting in the dugout
No bowler would have celebrated a wicket while sitting in the dugout. Mohammed Shami did at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. On the final ball of his third over, Shami was convinced he had trapped Rahul Tripathi LBW. The umpires didn’t agree, but his captain Hardik Pandya was convinced. Gujarat Titans opted for a review.
Shami wasn’t having a good day. He didn’t wait for the TV umpire’s verdict. He had had enough. He seemed drained Mumbai’s sweltering April heat. He wanted a water-break and a chair to sit.
He had bowled like a dream but the figures, 3-0-29-1, lied through their teeth. He had bowled several wicket-taking balls but had just one wicket to show for them. If Shami had got the rub of the green, the entire Sunrisers Hyderabad top order would have been in the dugout then. The barrel-chested, strong-limbed pacer was sending down those special heavy balls that give the turf a quick full-seam hug and dart around. These are deliveries that even the greatest of openers – Sunil Gavaskar was on air to vouch for – dread.
Two wickets fall in quick succession.
Abhishek Sharma and Nicholas Pooran depart.
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Shami squared up Abhishek Sharma twice but the batsman survived. In the same over, he drifted down the leg-side twice and conceded 10 wide runs. Great one moment, ordinary the next.
In the second over, Shami foxed the clever Kane Williamson. The set-up had started with him sending the square-leg to the fence, a tell-tale field-change for an expected short ball. It was a bluff. Williamson didn’t stay in his crease, and ended up poking at a full ball – a cardinal error when facing Shami’s stump-seeking missiles. The ball sneaked between his unsure bat and edgy pad to hit the stumps.
The delight didn’t last long. Tripathi, a known T20 slam-bang batsman, threw caution to the wind. He didn’t play the ball on its merit, and slashed the bat around. Two sixes, one four. Shami was livid.
His final ball was again his heavy nip-backer. Tripathi got nailed. Shami was wiping sweat in the dugout when the giant screen said ‘OUT’.
No wonder he said about the game not being fair to bowlers at a recent Idea Exchange: “I believe it is bowlers who bring you into the game in any format. Whenever the Indian bowlers have done well, you have got the results for years now. All rules are in favour of batsmen, why not some in favour of bowlers? A no-ball brings a free hit, the batter cannot get out. Fair enough, but you have to give some benefit to the bowlers too.”
