IPL 2018: Mumbai Indians’ Comeback Feels Like Fairytale, Says Jasprit Bumrah

Mumbai Indians’ annual late-resurgence continued on Wednesday night at the Wankhede Stadium. The defending champions bounced back from their defeat in the last game against Rajasthan Royals to beat Kings XI Punjab by three runs in a thrilling game.

It looked all over for Mumbai when KL Rahul and Aaron Finch were going strong in pursuit of the 187-run target. The duo stitched a 111-run stand off only 74 balls to lay the foundation for an easy chase. However, the game turned on its head when Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Finch and Marcus Stoinis in the 17th over.

Rahul kept Kings XI in the contest courtesy the three consecutive boundaries he hit off Ben Cutting in the next over. But his assault was cut short by Bumrah in the 19th over. Yuvraj Singh and Axar Patel tried but fell short as they tried to get 17 in the last over against Mitchell McClenaghan.

Bumrah was the star of the show, picking up 3 for 15 to fire his team to a win in the do-or-die clash.  Speaking after the win, Bumrah opened up on Mumbai’s knack of picking up form towards the end of the season.

“It (looks like a) fairy tale. Looks very easy, in the last moment we come and do, but it’s not always like that. It is difficult, we were preparing like that since the first game but we were not able to close off games. Now after the half way stage we were able to close games, so that is the thing we were focusing on. We are not focusing on what is going on, we just wanted to close games so we are focusing on our team and on the things we want to do,” he told the media after the win.

Unlike his teammates, Bumrah had a stunning night with the ball. It was his spell which turned the game around for Mumbai. Talking about his plans for Rahul, Bumrah said it was mainly about being clear in his mind.

“We already knew Rahul had been batting well throughout the tournament. In the bowler’s meeting we usually talk about every player so we knew we were bowling second and I had a chat with Shane Bond and Lasith Malinga and that there’d be dew. To have a clear plan is very important whenever you bowl so I was focusing on that today,” said Bumrah.

Talking about the execution in the penultimate over of the innings when he conceded just six runs and took the wicket of Rahul,he said:

“No, it was not that when we got wickets (off the bouncers), we were not looking to take wickets but because I wanted to create pressure so wanted to give as little runs as I could (to defend) to Mitchell (McCleneghan) in the last over so that was the plan.”

Mumbai Indians will next take on Delhi Daredevils in their final league game.