Mumbai Indians (MI) batter Naman Dhir dismissed the hype about Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) pacer Mayank Yadav after their 54-run win at the Wankhede Stadium on April 27. Mayank impressed fans and experts with his incredible pace and brilliant accuracy in the IPL last year.
Before injury sidelined him, Mayank bagged seven wickets in four outings for LSG at an average of 12.14 and an economy of seven in IPL 2024. It led to the youngster earning national selection in the T20I series against Bangladesh in October last year.
However, after the three T20Is, Mayank suffered another injury and missed over six months of action before returning in the MI-LSG clash. He removed MI opener Rohit Sharma in his second over before cleaning up skipper Hardik Pandya in his final over.
Yet, Mayank’s pace was visibly lower, and he finished with sub-par figures of 2/40 in his four overs.
Talking about Mayank Yadav in the press conference post-match, Naman Dhir said (Via India Today):
“It’s nothing special. He’s bowling, I am batting, it’s nothing special. It’s another bowler to face for me. I won’t say I prepared much for him. Yes, I have watched his videos, what he will bowl, what shots I can play but I would say it is another bowler for me to face.” [1:05]
Naman Dhir walked in to bat at the fall of Hardik’s wicket and faced six balls off Mayank. The two wides aside, the MI batter scored two runs off the other four legal deliveries.
Yet, Naman Dhir took off soon after, scoring a blistering 25* off 11 deliveries to help MI post a massive 215/7 in 20 overs.
“We are ticking the boxes and we are winning the moments” – Naman Dhir on MI’s winning streak
Naman Dhir believes MI winning the key moments and ticking all the boxes has helped them go on a five-game winning streak. The five-time champions overcame a poor start of losing four out of five matches to win their next five.
Their latest win against LSG took them to third on the points table with 12 points in ten games.
“I guess, yes, from the past five games, we are ticking the boxes and we are winning the moments which are leading us to the win. And I guess if we continue doing that, we will move upwards as well. It’s like, it’s nothing special,” said Naman Dhir. (Via NDTV)
Naman Dhir has been one of MI’s unsung heroes this season, scoring 155 runs at an average of almost 39 and a strike rate of 184.52.
MI will look to make it six wins in a row against the struggling Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Jaipur on May 1.
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Edited by Venkatesh Ravichandran
