5 min readApr 19, 2024 05:21 PM IST
First published on: Apr 19, 2024 at 12:36 AM IST
Synopsis: Ashutosh Sharma showed his prowess as Impact player with a 28-ball 61 to threaten a heist but MI’s heroes Jasprit Bumrah and Gerald Coetzee ensured Suryakumar’s 78 didn’t go in vain.
Ashutosh does a Surya
Ashutosh Sharma has been one of IPL’s best impact players of the season, often turning in devastating cameos. Where batsmen usually tend to tense up, Ashutosh gives off vibes of utter enjoyment, at least outwardly. No other batsman this IPL has admired his own hits with child-like glee, looking for reactions from the opponents even as he has often done.
When his usual partner-in-crime Shashank Singh fell, deceived by a slower one from Jasprit Bumrah in the first ball of the 13th over, the situation looked bleak: Punjab needed 82 from 47 balls with just three wickets in hand.
But in the same over, Ashutosh went down on his knee to sweep Bumrah for a stunning six, roared and tried to catch the eyes of any opposition player looking his way. Rohit Sharma would oblige him with an indulgent smile. He also unfurled a couple of thrilling helicopter pulls for sixes off Hardik Pandya and Romario Shepherd, standing on bent knees and not moving at all ala Henrich Klassen but just getting into position to get his hands working. In the 16th over when he smashed two sixes off Akash Madhwal — first over long-off and second reverse-lapped over third man — the game seemingly got tighter as they needed 36 from 26 balls but Mumbai’s bowling heroes returned to seal the game.
First, Bumrah bowled a bumper-filled 17th over to give just three runs. And when Gerald Coetzee, who had taken out two wickets with the new ball just like Bumrah, induced Ashutosh to pull a bouncer to the deep midwicket fielder, the game turned again. Punjab needed just 25 from 17 balls then, and 11 from the last over, but didn’t have the batsmen to take them over the line. The end came via a run out as Kagiso Rabada, who had hit his first ball for a six off Pandya in the penultimate over, couldn’t get back in time to keep strike.
Surya takes down Rabada
Recently Henrich Klassen, who used to try to copy Ab de Villiers before he realised the futility of it, would talk up his idol’s stand-out trait. “The genius of his work was that he can know exactly where the bowler will bowl about 70-80% of the time, and that’s not something you can teach or learn from anyone.”
Sometimes, Suryakumar Yadav too gives the same vibes. If he isn’t sure where the bowler will bowl, he has this ability to fit the ball in his framework at least. One does get the feeling he knew what Kagiso Rabada was going to bowl in the 8th over. A hit-the-deck back-of-length homing in on the off stump. Just before release, but not too early, Suryakumar, who was already on an off-and-middle guard shuffled just a touch towards off. And that wristy swat-sweep of his sent the ball soaring over backward square-leg boundary.
In the 16th over, there were a couple more moments against Rabada. He backed outside leg and Rabada followed him with a length ball. Suryakumar didn’t mow it down leg but went inside-out over extra cover. If the 8th over was seemingly about his anticipation of what the ball might be, this seemed a moment where he fitted the ball in his framework of shots. Next ball, he shuffled towards off and when a full toss on the middle arrived, he put it into backward square-leg stands.
The sweep shot off pacers was the signature shot of England’s Mal Loye, who would make a late debut at the age of nearly 33 after a string of injuries and sweep Brett Lee, no less, for an outrageous six in his first game at the Gabba in 2006. Likewise, Ashutosh’s swept-six off Bumrah would be a highlight of this IPL season, though undoubtedly he would rue the missed chance of taking his team home.
Punjab Kings batter Ashutosh Sharma plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 cricket match between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Mumbai Indians (MI) at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, in Mohali, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (PTI Photo) 
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