Chennai: Pacer Akash Madhwal, also a Uttarakhand-based civil engineer, engineered Mumbai Indians' way one step closer to the final clash of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 on Wednesday evening at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai.
A 2023 debutant, Madhwal, made a dream spell of 5 wickets, conceding five runs, disabling Mumbai's opponent Lucknow Super Giants in their Eliminator match. Madhwal showed enough grit in dismissing dangerous West Indian Nicholas Pooran, delivering him to the keeper, which could be viewed as a main turning point in the match where Mumbai only made a comparatively fair total against strong Lucknow.
Skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first when the commentators stated that both captains were on the mind to choose to bat if they won the toss. Though Sharma fell at 11 after scoring a six and a four hinting at a promising day, which he kept doing all this season, his boys took the team score to 182. But the team had lost eight wickets then. But Krunal Pandya's Super Giants crumpled like anything at 101 in 16.3 overs. All out!
What was so disappointing about Lucknow's fall was they conceded three heavy runouts, and all through the three, there was Deepak Hooda at one side.
When Naveen ul Haq made a glamour performance restricting Mumbai in the first innings with 4 for 37, Madhwal had more in hand with incredible figures of 3.3-0-5-5 during Lucknow's chase.
PTI reports that Madhwal delivering Nicholas Pooran to Keeper's gloves must be what helped Mumbai to clinch the match.
Skipper Rohit Sharma was restless all evening, as was evident from the field after she was seen throwing himself at the ball every time it was around. One such effort has resulted in a runout of a Lucknow batter.
Naveen, who has been under the spotlight since his angry exchanges with Virat Kohli during a league game against RCB, was constantly booed by the Chepauk crowd, but he did well enough to dismiss MI skipper Rohit (11 off ten balls), batting mainstay Suryakumar Yadav (33 off 20 balls), last match's hero Cameron Green (41 off 23 balls) and the ever dangerous Tilak Verma (26 off 22 balls).
Wadhera smacked a six and hit two fours in the final over bowled by Yash Thakur (3 for 34) to boost MI's score.
The impressive Moshin Khan (1-24) conceded only six runs in the penultimate over before Wadhera stepped up the pace in Thakur's next, the final over of the innings.
Suryakumar and Green gave some momentum to the innings with a 66-run third-wicket partnership in a little over six overs for Mumbai.
Green, who hammered a ton in the final league match against SRH, slammed six boundaries and 1 six, while Yadav hit two maximums and an equal number of fours in his 20-ball knock.