Mohammad Shami was the hero of the night for Kings XI Punjab against Mumbai Indians on Sunday. After the match ended in a tie after 20 overs with both teams scoring 176 runs, KXIP were in a spot of bother in the Super Over. They had just managed to hit five runs and it looked like KXIP had lost another match from a winning position. But cometh the hour, cometh the man. Shami stepped up to the occasion and bowled six accurate yorkers to take the match to another Super Over.
The feat was more impressive as he had two frontline batsmen in Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma at the crease. KXIP captain KL Rahul hailed Shami after the match and said that his pace spearhead wanted to bowl six yorkers in the Super Over while defending just five runs in their dramatic IPL match against MI.
KXIP eventually won the match in the second Super Over.
“You can never prepare for Super Overs. No team does. So you have to trust your bowler’s gut. You trust your bowler, and let them believe their instinct and gut,” Rahul said at the post-match presentation.
“He (Shami) was very clear he wanted to go six yorkers. He has been phenomenal, and keeps getting better every game. It is important that senior players win the games for the team.”
Rahul, who was named man of the match for his 77, expressed happiness at the victory but said his side would not want to make a habit of winning like this.
“It is not the first time. But we don’t want to make a habit out of it. We will take the two points in the end. It doesn’t always happen the way you plan so you don’t really know how to stay balanced.I was just hoping we get over the line because the boys have been working really really hard. In the games that we have lost, even then we have played well and just not been able to get over the line.”
He said the wicket was slightly slower and so he knew it would be important to get runs in the Powerplay.
“I knew Chris and Pooran… I trust them to take down spinners. So Chris coming in has made my job easier as a batter.”
On his side winning two back-to-back close matches, he said, “We still want to take it one game at a time. It is sweet after the kind of matches we have lost but the talk in the dressing room is to focus on the process.”We know we need to win everything from here, but we can’t forget the processes that lead to a win.”
