The Mumbai Indians, who defeated the Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator game, will play the Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2 of the 2023 Indian Premier League on Friday night. The star of the show for MI that evening was Akash Madhwal, who achieved the second-most economical five-wicket haul in league history. In 3.3 overs, he picked up two wickets and gave up five runs as LSG was bowled out for only 101 while chasing 183.
Prerak Mankad, who was on third base, was the first player Madhwal eliminated from the game, but it was in his second period when the uncapped pacer eliminated Ayush Badoni and Nicholas Pooran from the game. Ishan Kishan took a straightforward catch behind the wickets when he effectively forced a thick outside edge off Pooran while castleing Badoni.
Badoni tried a reckless cross-batted stroke but failed to get in the line of the ball after Madhwal delivered a back-of-the-length delivery. Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar discussed the dismissal after MI’s convincing victory and identified a particular component of Madhwal’s bowling that may develop into a “trend” in T20 cricket.
Madhwal had only delivered three balls to the LSG batter before Badoni was dismissed, according to Manjrekar, who claimed that the bowler didn’t use any “variations” in any of his deliveries to the batsman.
“The wickets of Badoni and Pooran demonstrated the calibre of Madhwal. No variation is his variation, which is something he does extremely differently and that we don’t see very frequently these days. Future trends may reflect it. The hitter readies himself for a change of pace if two seam-up deliveries are dot balls. When analysing Madhwal’s bowling on ESPNCricinfo, Manjrekar noted that Madhwal would be ready for a slower ball or a bouncer.
Badoni was anticipating a modification, as one would assume, but Madhwal didn’t provide any. And that is his area of expertise,” the former Indian batter said.
For Rohit Sharma and company to reach the 2023 season final, Madhwal would be essential once again. In the matchup’s title match, the winners of Qualifier 2 will face MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings.
