Jofra Archer lived up his reputation, and playing his first IPL match returned 3 for 22 in his four overs to help Rajasthan restrict Mumbai to 167/7 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Sunday.
The big West Indian took a while to find his rhythm but when he did he was unplayable. Mumbai were nicely placed to go berserk at 153/4 in 18 overs when Rajasthan captain Ajinkya Rahane handed the ball to Archer. What happened in that over gave one goosebumps as Archer paralysed the hosts’ innings with three wickets in the space of five balls.
First he had Krunal Pandya caught by Heinrich Klaasen at deep midwicket. The 23-year-old went from strength to strength and unleashed fiery yorkers to rattle the stumps of Hardik Pandya and Mitchell McClenaghan off successive deliveries.
Archer, born in Barbados, first caught the eye during the Big Bash league playing for Hobart Hurricanes. On Sunday, he unleashed every ball one expects a limited-overs bowling expert to bowl. He also generated great pace and his fastest delivery almost hit the 150-kmph mark. Rajasthan would be extremely pleased with the performance of Archer and will head into their future games with much more confidence.
Before the Archer show, Mumbai’s Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan impressed a lot with their great maturity. Both added 130 runs for the second wicket to help the team reach a competitive total despite Archer’s lethal 19th over. Suryakumar was the first to reach his fifty off just 29 balls – second this season, third overall. It didn’t take Kishan long to get his fifty either, off just 35 balls – first this season, second overall.
Kishan fell after a 42-ball 58 in the 15th over and shortly after Suryakumar also departed for 72 off 47 balls. It appeared both were meant to flourish together. Their departure in quick succession hurt Mumbai a great deal. On a slow wicket, the rest of the Mumbai batsmen, including bit hitters like Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya and Hardik Pandya, struggled shockingly in the death overs as the team fell at least 20 runs short.
Source: Zee News