Keeping close eyes on IPL 2020, Mumbai Indians (MI) stormed into the final of the ongoing 13th season of the T20 league in a style after thrashing Delhi Capitals (DC) by 57 runs in the first Qualifier on Thursday (November 5) at the Dubai International Stadium.
Batting first, MI posted 200/5 in their 20 overs, thanks to brilliant fifties from Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan and 40 from opener Quinten De Kock, while defending the total, Jasprit Bumrah led the attack by producing a stunning spell of 4/14 in overs to restrict DC to 143/8.
With the thrilling win over DC, MI, four-time IPL champions, and current titleholder book a place in Tuesday’s summit clash as they are eyeing their fifth title in the UAE.
Well, MI’s Surya, Trent Boult, and Bumrah might have been stealing all the limelight for their performance in the ongoing IPL 2020, but it was Ishan Kishan who impresses the most to former Australian cricketer and Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody.
Kishan has been also an impressive IPL 13 season with the bat, scoring 483 runs at an average of 53.66 in 13 games for MI so far, and even on Thursday, played brilliant innings of 55* off 30 and added 78 runs with Hardik Pandya in the last five overs to ensure MI post massive total against DC.
Praising the young wicketkeeper-batsman, former SRH coach Moody said people will definitely start hearing about the 22-year-old after his successful IPL 2020 season in the UAE.
Moody told ESPNCricinfo, “We’ll start hearing about him for sure. He has been in the shadows and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be under the spotlight now because we’re only seeing the batting that he has to offer. We do know that he can keep as well.”
The Australian further said, “He doesn’t need to keep in that Mumbai side so he’s the real package. The other thing is that he can open the batting and also looks comfortable batting in the middle and that’s quite rare for a young player to have that sort of open mind and flexibility.
I did listen to an interview that he did a couple of games ago. He was talking about how he was pretty chilled about the fact that opens or bats at 4 or 5, it didn’t matter to him. He was quite happy to play whatever role was required. That maturity in itself was quite significant.”
Meanwhile, Moody called Ishan’s knock vs DC in Qualifier 1 as matured.
He said, “I just thought that his was a particularly mature innings. Let’s face it, Mumbai Indians ended up with 200 but the only reason they ended up with that many I think was because of his craftsmanship in the middle of the innings. They did lose a couple of key wickets, particularly Rohit Sharma at the top and then Pollard went very quickly.”
He signed off by saying, “But he seemed to steady the ship and be the sort of backbone for the innings without any fuss. He seems to be able to navigate those difficult times quite comfortably. When he hits boundaries, he’s got this unbelievable ability to hit the ball out of the ground.”
