Mumbai Indians had been scratchy throughout IPL 2023 and it took the five-time IPL champions a win on the final day of the league stages and a bit of help from Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans to make the playoffs and the fourth team on May 21.
Cut to May 23, Eliminator vs Lucknow Super Giants at the Chepauk, Mumbai Indians showed why they were the five-time champions bullying LSG out of IPL 2023 with a performance that is sure to scare the remaining teams – GT and CSK – in the fray. MI mauled LSG, who had qualified for the playoffs in the 3rd spot, by a whopping 81-run margin.
It was not long ago that the CSK bowling coach Dwyane Bravo had mentioned that he is scared of facing Mumbai in the playoffs and GT skipper Hardik Pandya had echoed the same sentiment – “For every Dhoni there is a Rohit in the IPL” – he had said after losing to CSK in the Qualifier 1 a day before.
MI have reached the playoff ten times in 16 years, making it to the final on six occasions, and going on to win five of them. It is as if Mumbai Indians level up to ‘God Mode’ when they reach the playoffs.
Before the start of the season, Mumbai were in all sorts of trouble – Jasprit Bumrah, Jhye Richardson had been ruled out; Jofra Archer’s injury was a big question mark – practically wiping out their entire bowling unit.
The onus was on Rohit Sharma and the team management to regroup their bowling unit and regroup they did with veteran hand Piyush Chawla leading the troupe ably supported by Jason Behrendroff, but it was the 29-year-old Akash Madhwal who emerged as the vital cog in MI’s bowling unit and his shining glory (so far) could not have come at a better time – when the team needed it the most.
Madhwal broke the back of LSG’s batting unit with absolutely stunning figures of 3.3-0-5-5. He had started out as the Yorker expert, nailing those high-risk deliveries and in just 7 matches he has picked up 13 wickets at a stunning average of 12.84.
In his first three games, Madhwal managed just only one wicket and went at an economy of over 11 in two of those games. In one, he was used only for one over. Any other team would have had second thoughts on giving Madhwal the long rope.
But MI trust their process; their players and they did that with the pacer and he delivered at the Wankhede against Gujarat Titans with a spell of 3/31 scalping Wriddhiman Saha, Shubman Gill and David Miller.
In the crunch game against SRH, he again put his hand up and with 4/37 including a spell of 10 balls which included three wickets, giving away only 6 runs. On Wednesday, the confidence shown by MI in this Engineer-tuned-cricketer who followed his passion and had taken up cricket seriously only at the age of 24, was reaffirmed by the pacer with not only the best figures in IPL 2023, but the fifth-best in IPL history to dump out LSG, who had played their worst game of the season and found themselves in a royal flush.
Madhwal today started early – in the second over itself and had Prerak Mankad chase a wide one and was caught at deep third. In his second over, He then built the pressure on Ayush Badoni with three dots and then pulled his length slightly back and hit that hard length to rattle Badoni’s stumps. The big moment though came in the very next ball, when Nicolas Pooran edged one that seamed away.
Game, Set, Match for MI but Madhwal was not yet done and picked up his fourth in the form of Ravi Bishnoi and fittingly, had his fifth with a picture-perfect yorker to No.11 Mohsin Khan.
And while Madhwal earns all the plaudits and rightly so, MI, this season have found some absolute gems – one of them being Nehwal Wadhera. Wadhera had been a regular feature in the MI lineup ever since Tilak Varma had to sit out owing to a hamstring injury and had two fifty-plus scores in a match-winning cause earlier in the tournament. However, a 12-ball 23-run assault coming in as an impact player tipped the balance in MI’s favour when LSG made a brief comeback with Naveen ul Haq’s 4/37.
Eventually, LSG stumbled big time crashing for just 101, chasing 183 to win – a stark reminder that whatever Mumbai Indians may have endured in the league stages, once they reach the playoffs – they are a beast unleashed and it is a scary, scary proposition for anyone – be it the all-conquering MS Dhoni’s CSK and or the defending champions, Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans.
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