Piyush Chawla starred with the ball in Mumbai Indians’ (MI) six-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals (DC) at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday (April 11).
The leg-spinner returned with the figures of 3 for 22 in his four overs as MI bundled out DC for 172 in 19.4 overs.
In reply, MI got off to a brilliant start as Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan added 71 runs for the opening wicket. While Ishan fell after scoring 31 off 26 balls, the skipper held the one end and went on to score 65 off 45 balls.
Batting at No. 3, Tilak Varma produced a vital knock of 29-ball 41 while the Aussie duo of Tim David (13*) and Cameron Green (17*) sealed the chase for MI on the final delivery.
After the game, Chawla said the Kotla pitch wasn’t easy to bat on and that the start Rohit and Ishan provided, set the tone for the rest of the batters.
“This pitch wasn’t easy. We thought 170 is as good as 190 but the start Rohit and Ishan gave us, the way they utilised the new ball and getting 70 runs in 6 overs on this wicket is a great start. That set the momentum for us. Tilak batted well. All our batters batted beautifully,” Piyush Chawla said during the post-match conference.
“Even after scoring 70 runs in the first 6 overs, the game went on till the last ball so you can only imagine that the pitch wasn’t easy,” he added.
MI batter Suryakumar Yadav, who occupies the No. 1 spot in the ICC T20I batting rankings, is enduring a lean patch with the bat lately.
The dashing right-hander entered the IPL 2023 on the back of a forgettable ODI series against Australia at home. He was dismissed for three successive golden ducks in the 50-over series, which the visitors won 2-1 last month.
Surya hasn’t looked in good rhythm in Mumbai Indians’ three games so far, registering scores of 15(16), 1(2) and 0(1) against RCB, CSK and DC respectively.
Commenting on Suryakumar Yadav, Chawla said: “Surya’s form was never a concern. It takes only 10 balls to make a comeback in this format, you hit four fours and you are back in form. He got out on the first ball…that happens, the situation was such. That could have been a four or a six too so this happens. But the kind of batter Surya is, he’s high on confidence and it’s only a matter of 10 balls he’ll be back to his form.”
Sharing his views on the importance of leg spinners in shortest format, Piyush Chawla said, “In the last few years, 160-170 used to be a good score but today it’s not like that unless there’s some help from the wicket, otherwise 190 or something. In short, everyone’s getting hammered but leg spinners give you a wicket-taking option.”
“If you want to slow down the run rate in this format you have to take wickets. So leg spinners have the wicket taking ability. Even if they make slight changes in their wrist movement that’s a variation,” he added.
Talking about his preparations, the veteran spinner revealed that he doesn’t watch much cricket and that playing Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali has helped him a lot.
“I’m not playing much of cricket like domestic or competitive cricket but I make sure whatever game I play I put my more than 100% and body on the line,” he said.
“If you talk about watching cricket then I don’t watch much cricket to be very honest because I feel if you bowl a good ball it’s a good ball in any format and for any batter so i just prepare myself.”
“Everyone knows that PC is coming he’s gonna bowl a wrong one but still I end up getting wickets on wrong ones so I am more than happy doing that,” he added.
(The Indian Express Inputs)
