After Vaibhav Sooryavanshi successfully managed to get the better of Jasprit Bumrah, Josh Hazlewood, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, all eyes were on his clash against Mohammed Shami in the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) vs Rajasthan Royals (RR) match at the Ekana Cricket Stadium.
Sooryavanshi had the best powerplay record as a batter, 198 runs from 80 balls. Shami had the second-most powerplay wickets, 4 in 6 innings. The match-up was perhaps going to be the deciding factor of the match. Well, these were the expectations. The reality was something else.
Whirlwind powerplay: 3 wickets, 0 runs in 8 balls
Shami delivered 18 balls in the powerplay and Sooryavanshi faced 11 balls. But they didn’t go toe-to-toe. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, and Riyan Parag ended up facing Shami, while Sooryavanshi went against Prince Yadav and Mohsin Khan. Despite this, the powerplay was an exhilarating contest.
Rajasthan were off to a flier. 32 runs in 2.4 overs. Jaiswal was 22 (11) and Sooryavanshi was 8 (5). RR was ahead. In the next 1.4 overs, the game flipped on its head. Shami had gone for 19 runs in 10 balls. Jaiswal had just smashed 3 consecutive fours. But the veteran wasn’t ready to back down.
He delivered a sharp bouncer that Jaiswal tried hard to deposit into the stand. He feathered it behind, with LSG captain Rishabh Pant taking a leap and claiming a stunning one-handed catch. LSG were back in the game. The next ball, Shami delivered an unplayable swinging away delivery that Jurel couldn’t do anything about, and all of a sudden, LSG were ahead in the match.
Pant took the ball from Prince and gave it to Mohsin. The left-arm pacer kept on bowling length deliveries that Sooryavanshi struggled with. After 5 dot balls, the 15-year-old got frustrated and went for a wild slog and edged it towards cover. Digvesh Rathi ran backwards and claimed a good catch as RR went from 32/0 to 32/3 in 8 balls.
RR captain Parag and Shimron Hetmyer played out Shami and Mohsin in the next two overs as RR ended the powerplay at 44/3 in 6 overs. The first split up was 32/0 in 2.4 overs, while the second was 12/3 in 3.2 overs. It was everything you want to happen in the powerplay: runs and wickets.
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