SRH keep their slim hopes for playoffs qualification alive by beating MI by three runs in a see-saw battle at the Wankhede Stadium. Rahul Tripathi was the star of the match for his excellent innings, but Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s death bowling ensured SRH survive the Tim David sized scare. Let’s look at a few key moments from match 65 of the 2022 IPL.
Williamson going down the order
Kane Williamson has had a horror IPL so far with the bat. Opening the innings, Williamson had scored just 208 runs, and his strike rate of 92.86 was the worst for any batter with a minimum of 100 runs this year. His slow starts were putting a lot of pressure on SRH’s middle order. Against MI, Williamson finally decided to go down the order and included Priyam Garg to open the innings.
The decision was immediately vindicated, as Garg smashed 42 runs off just 26 balls. Along with Rahul Tripathi, Garg forged a fabulous 78-run partnership off just 43 balls and laid a solid platform for the incoming batters. Williamson eventually came out to bat in the 18th over at number six and scored an unbeaten eight runs off seven balls.
Vintage Bhuvi show
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has quietly had an outstanding season so far. He has been economical in the Powerplay (ER: 5.92) and has also been the most reliable bowler at the death for SRH (ER: 8.79).
MI needed 54 runs off the last four overs and lost the match by three runs. SRH have only Kumar to thank for this. Bowling the 17th over, Kumar gave away just nine runs. After Natarajan conceded 26 runs off the next over, the pressure was back on SRH, but Kumar made sure that the young Farooqi had plenty to defend in the last over by bowling a wicket maiden in the 19th over of the chase. It was a vintage Bhuvi show as he nailed three back-to-back yorkers to finish his outstanding spell.
Tripathi’s all-round batting
Rahul Tripathi has grown to be one of the most impactful batters in the last two IPL seasons. He has scored 790 runs at an average of 31.6 and a strike rate of 150.19 in this period. This year, no batter has scored more runs than Tripathi’s 393 at a better strike than his 161.7.
Against MI, Tripathi came in early and immediately counterattacked, hitting three boundaries off MI’s best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah. The key to Tripathi’s innings was his assured footwork against pace and spin. Against pace, he stayed in his crease and relied on his body weight transfer to either get on the front foot or go on the back foot. Against spin, he was quick to use his feet to step out or go deep in his crease.
Tripathi’s positive foot movement allowed him to keep the scoreboard moving. His innings involved only 29.5% dot balls, and in the middle phase of the innings (overs 7-15), SRH scored 107 runs at 11.88 RPO. This was largely due to his boundary-striking ability, as Tripathi scored 71.05% of his runs in boundaries. With such consistent performances, a national call-up might not be a farfetched dream for Tripathi.