Despite having a strong core, Hardik Pandya was the target of a lot of insults and harsh criticism after the Mumbai Indians’ tenth IPL 2024 finish. Individually, he gave up at a rate of 10.75 runs per over while averaging 18 runs at bat and 35.18 runs with the ball. Naturally, a championship-winning run at the T20 World Cup followed, and more recently, the redemption arc was solidified at the ICC Champions Trophy.
Regarding the IPL, MI has once again had a season that has started badly, winning only one of their first four games. But in all three games, the captain has had a strong run with the ball, taking eight wickets at a remarkable economy rate of 7.5. The first five-wicket haul by a skipper in the history of the game, which included the valuable scalps of Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant, David Miller, and Aiden Markram, came on Friday as he returned a career-best 5/36 against the Lucknow Super Giants.
Hardik’s spell and MI’s bowling as a whole were notable for their seamers’ astute deployment of off-pace deliveries. While Rishabh Pant was dismissed by an off-cutter that held up from the good length position, Hardik first used his natural, go-to length, the short-pitched stuff, throwing 15 balls in that zone that earned him four wickets. Three of the six off-cutters he bowled during his spell—including an in-form Nicholas Pooran—were successful in taking wickets. In the final overs, Trent Boult and youthful Ashwani Kumar both took the pace off to dismiss Ayush Badoni and Abdul Samad, respectively.
Additionally, with a notable differential in the square boundaries (73 vs. 66 metres), MI bowlers made excellent advantage of the unequal boundary dimensions in the final stages. The last four batters to be removed, Markram, Samad, Miller, and Akash Deep, were all forced to hit to the longer boundary off slower ones bowled into the wicket, depriving them of any significant power through the shot. Ashwani went further wide to catch him behind off the very next ball after Ayush Badoni scooped a six to the shorter side.
The short length comes naturally to Hardik, who has bowled in every stage of an innings.
He has taken 38 of his 72 wickets (52.77%) in his IPL career, with nearly half (47.53%) of the balls he has delivered being pitched short. These figures are nearly the same for all T20s for which data is available: 49.57% and 55.81%, respectively. Since his early days, when he helped India overcome Bangladesh in an exciting last-over finish at the T20 World Cup 2016, it has been his comfortable go-to choice.
Before some astute bowling at the back end undid the visitors, the match was fairly balanced at the 15-over mark of MI’s chase, with them at 143/3 and LSG at 146/3. Despite only having two points at this point, MI has several advantages going into their next two road games at high-scoring locations. With 21 wickets from four games thus far, their quicks are seven ahead of the next best (14 for the Kolkata Knight Riders), and the Delhi Capitals are the only team to surpass them in average (19.14) and strike-rate (12.5) (18.3 and 11.2 respectively). Without the assistance of a certain Jasprit Bumrah, all of that is possible.
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