The Sharjah Cricket Ground lived up to expectations by producing a 382-run encounter. The flat pitch, the small ground, and the two armies of power hitters demanded defensive bowling of the highest order. It was here that Sunrisers Hyderabad’s chances were cruelly cut short. Having picked up injuries during their previous match, against Chennai Super Kings, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed both had to sit out. Taking full advantage, Mumbai Indians blasted their way to 208/5 before their full-strength attack restricted Hyderabad to 174/7.
To make things worse, Sunrisers do have a fifth specialist bowler in their attack and have to fill in those four overs with Abhishek Sharma (who had bowled well against Chennai Super Kings but did not bowl here), Abdul Samad, and Kane Williamson. That, along with the loss of Bhuvneshwar and Khaleel, left Sunrisers a depleted attack.
How depleted? T Natarajan and Rashid Khan, the two only first-choice specialist bowlers, combined to return 8-0-51-1. The replacement seamers, Sandeep Sharma and Siddharth Kaul, went for 8-0-105-4 between them. And the part-timers had 4-0-51-0. That turned out to be decisive.
Contrast this with the Mumbai attack. Jasprit Bumrah went for runs at the death when Hyderabad unleashed their final slog. He finished with 4-0-41-2. None of the others went for even nine an over. The chase was always going to be a one-dimensional slog-fest and, to be fair, Hyderabad started well, reaching 115/2 in 12 overs. But they lost steam once the wickets started falling, and were pegged back as they kept losing wickets. Priyam Garg and Abhishek, who had put up a superb stand against Chennai, could not provide an encore.
Where do Hyderabad go from here? They have a well-rounded unit, especially their solid Indian contingency of four batsmen (two of whom can bowl) and three excellent seam bowlers. In fact, barring Rashid, their entire bowling attack is Indian.
But now, with two main seamers uncertain, they need to make strategic changes. They play Kings XI Punjab next, and unless they ‘upgrade’ their bowling attack with a fifth specialist option, they are unlikely to be spared by the heavy artillery that consists of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Glenn Maxwell, and Nicholas Pooran.
Part of Hyderabad’s advantage lies in their superb bench strength, especially the Indian section. Two of their seamers were out of action, while two had an off day – and yet, they still have a fifth, Basil Thampi, warming the bench. And in Dubai, Shahbaz Nadeem is likelier to succeed than seamers, so reserve Indian bowlers are not going to be an issue.
But picking Thampi or Nadeem will not solve the problem of being a bowler short. They need to replace a batsman with a bowler. They may get Vijay Shankar in with one of Abhishek, Garg, and Samad, but Shankar is more of a batting all-rounder.
This is where Mohammad Nabi, one of the finest T20 players in the world, may come into play. Leaving out one of David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, and Williamson may seem harsh, but Nabi will restore balance to the side, at least till Bhuvneshwar and Khaleel return to make up for that fifth bowler. Nabi’s IPL numbers – strike rate 147, economy 6.54 – bear testimony to his abilities to fit into this dual role.
What about Mumbai? Despite losing Rohit Sharma in the first over, they never lost tempo throughout their innings. They put up the model T20 display, something their heavy artillery allows them to. Their batsmen went after the bowling right from the onset, and barring Rohit, every one of them got runs, and got them at a breakneck pace. If one takes Ishan Kishan (31 runs at 135) away, the next slowest batsman was Hardik Pandya, whose 28 came at a strike rate of 147.
Not only do they have one of the deepest batting line-ups of this edition, most of their batsmen can accelerate without having to settle down. Even if the top four fail to score quickly, their five, six, and seven – the Pandya brothers and Kieron Pollard, all of whom strike at over 145 – will come out all guns blazing. And the only reason that Chris Lynn is yet to play a match this time is they have too many world-class overseas stars.
With Pollard and Krunal often bowling full quotas, Mumbai can afford the luxury of playing Hardik as a specialist batsman, for they have six bowlers, three of whom – Bumrah, Trent Boult, and James Pattinson – can turn matches on their head in one-over bursts.
While Pollard’s abilities are acknowledged universally, Krunal’s are not as obvious. However counterintuitive it may sound, it will not be an overstatement to count him among the finest Indian all-rounders in IPL history.
In fact, Krunal is one of only two Indians to feature in the top ten of both the strike rate and economy rate charts in IPL (the other being Harbhajan Singh). That he is not as celebrated might have to do with the fact that he has never taken four wickets in an innings in the IPL, while his only fifty in the tournament came in 2016.
Mumbai’s MVP? If not, he is definitely one of the contenders for that spot.
from Firstpost Sports Latest News https://ift.tt/2F1ICJV
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