The IPL 2023 Eliminator concluded on Wednesday night with Mumbai Indians thrashing Lucknow Super Giants by 81 runs, cruising into Qualifier 2. It was yet another electrifying game of the season that witnessed some astounding performances on the field. The game began with Naveen-ul-Haq’s brilliance with the ball and a gritty effort from Impact Substitute – Nehal Wadhera. Following an equally battled war in the first half, the game turned one-sided.
Mumbai were aided by Akash Madhwal’s dream spell and Lucknow’s hara-kiri act in the middle overs.
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MI will now fly to Ahmedabad, the home of Gujarat Titans. The two teams will lock horns in the second qualifier on Friday night at the Narendra Modi Stadium. But before moving on to the next game, let’s recall the blast for the previous night – the talking points of the game.
Madhwal, the wrecker-in-chief: The Uttarakhand pacer engineered MI’s 81-run win with a phenomenal bowling performance and glorified it with a five-wicket haul, rather the best bowling figures in the IPL Playoffs – 5 for 5 in 3.3 overs. His prime victim was Nicholas Pooran, along with Prerak Mankad, Ayush Badoni, Ravi Bishnoi and Mohsin Khan. The first-ever bowler to pick a five-wicket in playoffs, Madhwal came in a replacement player in IPL 2022. On Wednesday, he played the lead role in MI’s success in Chennai.
The three fate-changing run-outs: Marcus Stoinis, K Gowtham and Deepak Hooda – all three allrounders featured in one of the most bizarre run-outs of the season on Wednesday. Stoinis banged into Hooda and couldn’t make his ground. Gowtham couldn’t beat Rohit Sharma’s direct hit while Hooda too had a brain-fade moment and got stuck in an ugly situation. These incidents broke LSG’s back, leaving them with no chance at all.
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Green, Stoinis – Aussies among runs: The Aussie batters – Stoinis (40) and Cameron Green (40) were the top-scorer of their respective teams, with almost identical figures. But the difference is, the LSG cricketer didn’t get any support from the other end whereas MI’s multi-millionaire boy featured in a 66-run stand with Suryumar Yadav for the third wicket.
Naveen, leader of the LSG attack: Naveen had his own set of royal preys – MI skipper Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar, Green and Tilak Verma. Naveen getting Surya and Green in one over could well prove to be decisive as MI seemed at least 15 short of par-score. With figures of 4 for 38 in four overs, Naveen now has the third-best bowling figures for LSG against MI.
Wadhera – the ‘Impact’ful substitute: Surya and Green falling in quick succession forced Mumbai Indians to incorporate Wadhera as the ‘impact player’. Thus, he substituted SKY and walked out at no. 7. He smacked a six and hit two fours in the final over bowled by Yash Thakur to boost MI’s score. The Punjab batter scored 23 runs off 12 deliveries, with the help of 2 sixes and as many boundaries.
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