MATCH STORIES
Follow UsNo one would have expected that Yashasvi Jaiswal would score just 121 runs at an average of 17.29 after playing half of the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
What he did against England in the five-Test series just before the IPL by winning the Player of the Series had ensured the fans that he would take the tournament by storm. And once he did that, the American Consulate would have delivered his visa for the upcoming T20 World Cup in the Rajasthan Royals camp.
That is what, frankly, most of us expected to happen. But life is not a wish-granting factory.
Yashasvi Jaiswal lost touch at the worst possible time. He was being repeatedly dismissed on back of a length and short deliveries. So much so that four out of his seven dismissals in the competition have come against either back of a length or short deliveries. In fact, he wasn’t able to play or defend deliveries from these lengths comfortably, and as a result, he was repeatedly playing a lot of false shots.
Pacers had found a weakness against him, and they were exploiting it with increasing efficiency. Meanwhile, against spin, his average was infinity as he’s still to get out to one.
On April 22, Gerald Coetzee had exactly the same plans for the 22-year-old. This time, he was troubled yet again from the same back of a length despite being able to hit his length and short deliveries easily.
Coetzee is a hit-the-deck kind of a bowler, and hence, after getting hit for a six by Jaiswal on his first delivery, he bowled a 147.8 kmph back of a length delivery that beat the southpaw with its sheer pace.
After another three deliveries of no run coming from the bat, it was evident that Jaiswal was having trouble facing Coetzee and his hard-length bowling.
However, that’s when Hardik Pandya erred by not giving Coetzee another over in the powerplay to keep attacking Jaiswal. He gave the ball to Nuwan Thushara, who’s one of the two most prominent Lasith Malinga variants in Sri Lankan cricket. Jos Buttler and Jaiswal smashed him for two boundaries each.
The micro momentum that Coetzee had managed to build in the over against Jaiswal disappeared like camphor with each boundary.
Later on, when the spinners, Mohammad Nabi and Piyush Chawla, came on to bowl, he scored 42 runs in 23 balls against them, thumping four belligerent sixes in the process. There was no back-of-a-length trouble for Jaiswal anymore. His mind-blowing hitting against the spinners brought back memories of his treatment of Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley in the Test series, as he used his reach to get forward and slog them for sixes on the leg side.
His form, or rather the state of mind where his runs start flowing, had come back. And it wasn’t without assistance. Like their captain’s bowling changes, even the MI fielders helped Jaiswal get back into form by dropping him. Nehal Wadhera dropped a tough chance in the tenth over when Jaiswal was at 50*, and then he just went on a rampage.
After initially respecting Bumrah, he drove him through covers with a big stride forward, making Sunil Gavaskar practically fall off his seat excitedly. He also heaved a six on a slower ball from him. At that point, the 22-year-old was batting in such a flow that it was hard to bring an end to it. It was so hard that Jaiswal remained not out and finished the 180 chase with eight deliveries to spare.
If Sandeep Sharma's ever-evolving bowling brought Mumbai Indians to their knees, Jaiswal's full-blooded sixes nearly decapitated them as they suffered a heavy 9-wicket loss.
It still remains to be seen who the selectors would pick as openers for the upcoming T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the United States of America. But centurion Jaiswal not only made a return to form against Mumbai with an unbeaten 104; he also forwarded his visa application to the US Consulate.
