Mumbai fast bowler Akash Madhwal grabbed astonishing figures of 5-5 to help the Indians eliminate Lucknow Super Giants from the Indian Premier League with a thumping 81-run win recently.
Madhwal’s brilliant bowling and three bizarre run-outs saw Lucknow get bowled out for 101 with more than three overs to spare as Australian Marcus Stoinis top-scored with 40.
Mumbai won the toss and elected to bat in the knockout game, scored 183-8 with Cameron Green and Surya Kumar Yadav dominating the first half of the innings. Impact player Nehal Wadhera smashed 2 fours and 2 sixes in his cameo of 23 off 12 balls.
Mumbai Captain Rohit Sharma said, “We knew what he had…I was confident he could get the job done for us. As a team, we enjoyed the fielding. We want to keep getting better and throw ourselves. We knew coming to Chennai, one man won’t take us through.”
Lucknow’s decision to leave out opening batter Quinton de Kock from the crunch game backfires as its impact player, West Indies’ Kyle Mayers hold out at long-on within the powerplay after Madhwal had struck with his fifth ball by having Prerak Mankad caught at third man.
Captain Krunal Pandya struggled for 11 deliveries before he too played a rash shot and skied a catch at a long on against leg-spinner Piyush Chawla as Lucknow slumped to 69-3 in the month over. “Everything started when I played that shot, that was not on and I completely take all the blame,” Pandya said, while defending the inclusion of Mayers because of West Indian batter’s better record in Chennai.
Madhwal dealt the final blow with Lucknow’s chase in the next over when he clean bowled Ayush Badoni and found the edge of former West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran off the next delivery as he suffered the indignity of a first ball ‘duck’.
Stoinis then got run out when he couldn’t make it at the striker’s end for the second run after a mid-wicket collision with Deepak Hooda.
Two smart pieces of ground fielding by Green earned Mumbai two more run-outs of Krishnappa Gowtham and Hooda before Madhwal sealed the game with a perfect yorker to clean bowled batter Mohsin Khan.
Mumbai Indians will now face defending champion Gujarat Titans with the winner advancing to the final against Chennai Super Kings.
