IPL 2023, LSG vs MI Emotional Rollercoaster: Chawla stings like a bee, Stoinis reprieve from review & joyous Thakur scoops SKY

Mohsin stays calm
Mohsin Khan gestured to captain Krunal Pandya that he is calm, as he stood at the top of his run-up, tossing the ball. Sweat dripped over his face, the eyes were anxious, the face wore a sombre expression. But nervous he was not. Needing to defend 10 runs for a win, he slid an off-cutter first ball to Cameron Green. He shoved the ball straight back at him. A length ball followed, and he had to thank Green’s ricketiness for it not sailing over the ropes. But the single brought Tim David, and here was Mohsin’s big test. He stood up to the challenge. David’s hitting zone is the leg-side and so he bowled a full ball, slanting away outside the off-stump. David could manage just a single and was off the strike. Pandya would again tell him to be calm. Khan would nod his head. He slipped in the perfect yorker. A dot ball. Another yorker follows, which Green squirts for a single. A victory assured, Khan roared in delight. But Krunal was wary, and told him to not overstep, end up conceding a no-ball, a free-hit, and probably the match. Khan did not. He kept his calm, floated in a slower ball and let all that pent-up nerves explode into manic celebrations.
Lost and found
Tim David did all the hard work of sprinting 30 metres sideways and getting under the skier that skewed off Deepak Hooda’s bat. But he could cling onto the catch, as he misjudged the plunge of the ball, lost a bit of balance, and let it slip through his palms and onto his chin. It hurt him, as he kept stroking his chin for some more time. But he was more haunted the drop, and rued not going for the reverse-cup technique. But the next time he got under a steeper, he ensured that he went with the reverse-cup and cleanly clung on to the catch. It was Hooda again, though the catch was simpler, needing David to barely move a couple of feet.

Maza aaya? 😎 pic.twitter.com/oAJY4fNZKu
— Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) May 16, 2023
Stings like a bee
Piyush Chawla’s eyes might have lit up at the sight of the pitch in Lucknow, the spin-friendliest of this IPL. He made his first tryst with the surface memorable producing a sumptuous googly. The ball drifted into the left-handed Quinton de Kock as the ball left his wrs before it landed and spun away viciously. De Kock, admirably, judged the drift and flight sharply and his front-foot stride was emphatic enough to reach the pitch of the ball. But he didn’t gauge for the extra degree of turn. Chawla is usually not a prodigious turner of the ball, but this one spun and kissed the outside edge of De Kock’s bat. It did not burst past him, but floated him. He could have been saved had he not reached the pitch of the ball. But therein lies the mastery of Chawla, this one was a bit too fuller than his standard deliveries, and hence drew the South African fully into the stroke.

Reluctant review rewards Stoinis
Marcus Stoinis took the referral more in hope than conviction. The reversing-swinging yorker from Akash Madhwal—viciously bending in, swinging in the air and seaming off the pitch—had struck him on the back-heel as the Australian tried to jam the ball to safety and missed it altogether. Stoinis’s partner Nicholas Pooran too was confident about the review, but in the end Stoinis sought the review because he was Lucknow’s most precious batsman, and well set too. As it turned out, the movement off the surface worked in the favour of Stoinis, as the tracker showed it was missing the leg-stump. Stoinis was pleasantly bemused, as were Rohit Sharma and Madhwal. And as often as it transpires, Stoinis hammered 24 runs off Chris Jordan’s next over.
Complicated stroke easy on the eye
In the fifth over, Naveen-ul-Haq posted a deep-square leg for Rohit Sharma. It was a supposed ruse, set him up for the pull and fox him with a full ball. But how many times Sharma has seen through such ploys. He knew what was coming, shuffled across, crouched and on bent knees whipped him towards the right of the deep square. It was an unusual Sharma stroke. Usually, he employs the regular flick, often along the ground and rarely in the air. Here, he was almost impersonating Suryakumar Yadav, sans the bottom-hand accentuated snaps of the wrs. Nonetheless, it made for a gorgeous watch. He made a complicated stroke look easy on the eyes. The imperceptible shuffle across, the rapid switch to one knee and the measured movements of his hands to get the ball up and over. And how he bluffed the double-bluff, and almost sadically hit past the catcher who was supposed to be his terminator.

Classic. 🫰💙#OneFamily #LSGvMI #MumbaiMeriJaan #MumbaiIndians #IPL2023 #TATAIPL @ImRo45pic.twitter.com/ZV3nS68Dnf
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) May 16, 2023
Thakur scoops the SKY wicket
Yash Thakur ran like a man possessed, without any direction. He then pulled out a Dale Steyn-like chainsaw celebration, and punched the air in joy. So joyous that Quinton de Kock and Krunal Pandya had to calm him down. Then he had just dismissed Suryakumar Yadav, the most prized wicket in the T20 galaxy, playing his bread and butter scoop shot. Thakur spotted Yadav’s intentions and bowled a slower ball outside the off-stump. The slowness of the strip further decelerated the journey of the ball, and for once Yadav was early into the shot. He tried to delay his shot, but could only inside-edge the ball onto the stumps. He lost his balance and lay disconsolate on the ground, even as Thakur teared away, his joy pouring without direction.
– Sandip G