Mumbai Indians’ middle-order hitter Nehal Wadhera was overjoyed that their hard effort as a team was rewarded with a six-wicket victory over Punjab Kings.
Mumbai Indians made it two wins in a row as they beat Punjab Kings in Match 46 of IPL 2023 at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on Wednesday.
Mumbai Indians put up a chasing masterclass, with Ishan Kishan’s (75 off 41) and Impact Player Suryakumar Yadav’s (66 off 31) blazing runs helping the away side chase down 215 after Liam Livingstone’s (82* off 42) and Jitesh Sharma’s (49* off 27) aggressive efforts propelled PBKS to 214/3 in the first innings.
“We are playing practice matches among ourselves by making two teams from the squad. Both the teams are posting 200+ consistently so a lot of confidence for these kinds of run chases is coming from those practice matches,” he added.
Chasing 200+ scores against top-tier bowling teams like PBKS demonstrated the strength of our batting lineup. However, Nehal Wadhera believes that the Impact Player rule added depth to the batting lineup and threw his weight behind bowlers.
Impact Player Rule gave batters an edge: Nehal Wadhera
“We have great faith in our bowlers. All teams are scoring huge scores this season so it is not that the bowlers are doing something wrong. The Impact Player rule also gives the batters a bit of freedom to play fearlessly as they know they have an extra batter in their wings. The rule has also led to more close finishes in the IPL which we love to watch,” he said.
Thus SKY’s mind-boggling shots and ability to discover new spots to score seem almost comical. However, Nehal is aware of (and now sees!) the effort that goes into honing them.
“No doubt, he (Suryakumar Yadav) is a 360-degree player. He practices his shot a lot of times in the net and that’s why those shots seem like they come naturally to him. He is one of the finest T20 batters in the world. He doesn’t shy away from giving us good tips on how to pull off those extravagant shots. We learn a lot from him,” Nehal Wadhera stated.
