You can watch the video of this stunning effort here.
The Maharashtra derby between the Mumbai Indians and the Rising Pune Supergiant got off to a superfluous start as far as the Supergiant were concerned, as the use of a fast bowling and a spinner consecutively from both ends tied down the Mumbai openers to the crease and let to the downfall of both their openers.
In the third over of the innings, Jaydev Unadkat dealt a double blow to the two-time champions, as he took advantage of the pressure built in the first two overs and dismissed both the Mumbai openers, Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons.
Parthiv was caught at mid-on, as he miscued his pull shot off a slower ball and was caught by Shardul Thakur.
Before Mumbai could recover from this blow, Unadkat’s brilliance in the field, to send back Simmons, not only made it a great start for the Supergiant but also put to show an exceptional one-handed return catch that would easily rank among the best catches of the tournament.
A good length delivery by Unadkat was defended back to the bowler by Simmons, and even as there was only a thin strip of air between the ball and the surface it was enough for the left-arm pacer to bend low in his follow through and pull that ball out of thin air.
An awkward defence off the front foot might have taken the ball anywhere, but it took the ball straight to Unadkat who was well into his follow through. To control his momentum and leap off his foot to take a ball coming back at him at the rate of knots requires excellent agility and presence of mind, and to pull this off in a pressure situation like the final is an act of brilliance.
With 23 wickets in the IPL, Unadkat has already made his name up the bowling charts and has been the best bowler for the Supergiant. Lendl Simmons had scored three fifties in his first four games this season and hence the value of this wicket cannot be undermined.
Mumbai were 8/2 in 3 overs, and while Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma were trying to lead the recovery process, Smith’s brilliant throw from mid-off to hit the stumps on the full sent back Rayudu and Mumbai slumped to 41/3 in 8 overs.
After the dismissal of the top three, the responsibility lay on the shoulders of their captain Rohit Sharma to guide Mumbai to a respectable total, but the night got worse for Mumbai when Sharma pulled a short ball by Adam Zampa straight to Shardul Thakur at deep midwicket, who did well to keep his body inside the field of play after completing the catch, as he was tantalisingly close to the boundary.
Rohit’s dismissal left Mumbai teetering at 56/4 in the 11th over.
Follow the live ball-by-ball commentary here.
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