It was a day that the Rajasthan Royals needed to step up and secure the win. They were at Wankhede against the Mumbai Indians with their playoff spot destiny in their own hands. The Royals needed to do something different from their usual style, and they did that by unleashing an all-rounder in their ranks, Jofra Archer.
After losing the toss and being put into bat. The last time these two teams faced off in Guwahati, it was Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi who sealed the deal with their explosive batting. But that didn’t happen this time around, with both men falling within the fifth over.
MI vs RR: Highlights | Scorecard
The attention was then on the middle-order of RR, which has struggled in situations like this. Riyan Parag once again flopped to push the scrutiny on RR. Then came the first bluff as Donovan Ferreira was protected for Dasun Shanaka. The Sri Lankan all-rounder was able to counter the spin choke, but fell with the score at 99 in the 11th over.
Ferreira came in and was slowly steadied the ship, but Jurel also fell. With Ravindra Jadeja raring to go, you would have imagined he was the next man in. But in came Archer, to the surprise of many.
People questioned the move and were left scratching their heads. There were seven overs left and they had Shubham Dubey and Jadeja still in their ranks. Both men can hit the long ball and score at a good rate.
And then Archer started a storm that was enough to just blow away MI. It was something that wasn’t expected and MI without Jasprit Bumrah got caught off guard.
While his bowling ensured the win on the day, Archer’s all-round performance gets the nod today as the Play Of The Day, as it helped RR secure their playoff spot qualification.
ARCHER ACTS AS THE PAWN
In chess, to protect your main pieces, sometimes you sacrifice your pawn to go out and make some moves. This has been a tactic we see in the IPL with KKR achieving success with the use of Sunil Narine. MI used it during their title-winning seasons with the use of Mitchell McCleneghan.
The aim is to get a quick boost of 20-30 runs that can make a quick difference to the final score. Here, the idea was the same with Archer.
RR skipper Riyan Parag said it at the post-match presentation that they didn’t want two batters playing anchor roles at that time and wanted Archer to strike at 200-plus.
“We wanted one of the set batters to play a little longer and we needed runs. It’s a wicket where you can’t be having 2 players striking at 100. So we wanted one guy who could take the initiative and the risk so that the other guy could just stay in longer and Jadeja’s as reliable as always. I knew back end – he would get us at least 25 off 10, which he did,” said Parag.
Once Ferreira fell in the 16th over, RR needed to act fast and go at a good rate. It was still a track that had runs in it, and the order of the day was to go hard.
At that point, had Jadeja come in, he would have taken time to settle in and that was something that wouldn’t have helped RR’s cause.
Archer started it all with a six in the same over that Ferreira was dismissed and then got another maximum. He followed it up taking down Shardul for a boundary and six before getting dismissed.
But by then, he scored 32 off 15 balls to ensure that the game had tilted in Royals’ favour. Finally Jadeja came in to provide a late boost of boundaries and some banter at the expense of Shardul.
This was a risky move. A bluff that could have gone either way. If it comes off, you are a mastermind. Else, you will be called out for your foolery.
Kumar Sangakkara called it guess work at that point, saying he wanted tp keep Ferreira and Dubey for the back end.
“It is always guess work. Great when it works. Ugly when it does not. We wanted Archer to take some risks and then, Ferreira and Dubey take care of the final few overs when the bowlers were tired in the sun. Ferreira got out but Jofra kicked on and Jadeja coming in did well with a bung elbow. We should have gotten 220, but we did well to get to 206 too,” said Sangakkara.
It was a full circle moment for Archer as the knock came against MI, a team that discarded him. And he returned to the team that always adored and now he repaid the faith with a brilliant performance with the bat.
“He has been really invested in the team, he has been helping everyone and has done really well from the start of the season. He has spearheaded our bowling attack. Today, he bowled really well but before that, with the bat, he was exceptional and took us to the playoffs,” said Archer.
Now with the playoffs coming in full swing, will RR maybe pull the Narine or McCleneghan card with Archer also? Guess time will tell.
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