Mark Wood’s spell brings the allure of Test cricket to IPL 2023

Compound this with 40/0 in four overs, an envy inducing opening duo and a track that just offered 193 runs on it in the first innings, with more dew settled on the surface. And also, the fact that his last IPL experience ‘didn’t go quite well’. Pulling a shutter down on all of it, Wood steamed in to bowl that first delivery. Trying to keep his strides short, as he would mention later.

“I feel at ease doing that… charging in, and letting it fly.” And just as he landed hard on that left foot, with the impact shifting his toe right to the tip of his boot, Wood let the ball fly. Banged in short, forcing a five-feet-six Prithvi Shaw to hop and defend it down with all his might.

First game and first five-for 🤩

Wood surely left a big Mark in our opening game 👏#LSGvDC | #IPL2023 | #LucknowSuperGiants | #LSG | #GazabAndaz pic.twitter.com/iOywKYe64O

— Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) April 1, 2023

A hundred-and-forty something registered on the speed gun. Quickest of the evening so far. It’d get quicker. The short ball has for long been the Achilles heel in Shaw’s short career. So, Wood delivered another. Quick, short, but wide. Now, a little further up. Softening him, but keeping it quick. And then, he took it out of the proverbial hat. A 147.3kph, fuller delivery, angled in. Pierced between the bat and pad to rattle the off stump. About six months ago, Wood had conceded he was almost done with Test cricket. Good heavens, he wasn’t! The 33-year-old was in fact using the T20 stage to showcase his Test cricket arsenal. A typical red ball setup to get that wicket.

One brings two here, lads! The most common of slip cordon phrases would’ve worked its way through his head. There is no other reason that explains him catering to an almost identical pace and length off the next one. Mitchell Marsh had been Australia’s top run scorer across the three ODIs and series in India. He was used to such wickets and conditions, having taken the attack to bowlers on these very surfaces. On Saturday night however, he stood posing for a straight drive as his off stump was cleaned up behind him. Two wickets in two balls and Delhi sent in the closest they could to a Don Bradman.

For Sarfaraz Khan, Wood packaged a ‘Ctrl C+V’ Shaw-stopping combo. Short, good length, and full on the off. Not a run was scored off the bat in that over. This, while the injury prone quick struggled with the dew. “I fall at even the best of times.” He had managed to bowl in a practice game under the same conditions during the evening, at the same venue. “But at training, you don’t have the same intensity that you have during a match.” Intensity on which the Super Giants had to bank on for at least another over in a row.

David Warner had batted the most deliveries for Delhi so far. Having been recently exiled from the Australian Test team, there couldn’t have been a better pre-Ashes Test for the DC captain against one of England’s best.

First up, a 148 clicks banger that forced him to hop and fend deep in his crease. Followed by a test of quick footwork to defend a good length ball on the off. Then, a 144 clicks short one which was negotiated for a single – the first off Wood. Seeing as the new batter was on strike, he decided to throw in a final surprise card and take the pace off. In his three-delivery setup to Sarfaraz, the England pacer catered only to the short length but turned down his speed from 140 to 137 kph. A little more on the ball would’ve taken Sarfaraz’s uppercut over the long leg boundary. Instead, he was caught a couple of meters ahead. Almost falling down while attempting the shot off a vicious incoming delivery.

This is a @MAWood33 appreciation post. Literally. 🫶#LSGvDC | #IPL2023 | #LucknowSuperGiants | #LSG | #GazabAndaz pic.twitter.com/e0qAjkxMJP

— Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) April 2, 2023

Two overs. Three runs. Three wickets. It wasn’t quite ‘game, set, match’ to Lucknow but Delhi never quite recovered from that Wood spell. A spell meticulously worked on, having tested its antagonists as if it were on a Test cricket morning and not under the lights during a franchise league. The plan and preparation for it? “Morne Morkel (LSG fast bowling coach) has been really good with me. Just try to bowl similar to what I do for England,” Wood shared with the player of the match trophy in his hand for a first five wicket haul in IPL 2023.

“This is the ideal format for him,” suggested former England spinner Graeme Swann on broadcast, highlighting Wood’s constant bouts with injuries in the five-day format. In those first two overs though, he had breathed Test cricket into a T20 match.