If the 21-year-old Mayank Yadav put up a fast and furious show on Saturday, Mohit Sharma, 35, gave a lesson on how to use the slower ball on Sunday, helping Gujarat Titans to their second victory in three matches.
The Titans, playing at their home in Ahmedabad, cut the wings of the high-flying Sunrisers Hyderabad, thanks mainly to Mohit, restricting the visitors, who had amassed a record 277/5 in their last match, to just 162/8 in 20 overs. Following that, the Titans batters never panicked in the chase and handsomely won the game by seven wickets with five balls to spare.
Titans’ David Miller played a fluent hand with an unbeaten innings of 44 off 27 balls, but they all teamed up to make sure the chase looked easy. The left-handed Sai Sudharsan top-scored with 35 from 36 balls, while there were contributions from captain Shubman Gill (36) and Wriddhiman Saha (25) too.
It was a sound batting effort from the Titans, but it was seamer Mohit who stood out with his cerebral bowling that earned him the Man of the Match award for his figures of 3/25 from four overs.
At the presentation ceremony, Mohit spoke about his thought process and on the art of bowling slower.
“I practice what I do generally… What’s important is knowing when to use them (slowers) and being ahead of the batter. Everyone has them on slow wickets, but knowing how to use it against whom is the key,” the former India pacer said.
How he foxes the batter? “If you and the batter know what you’ll deliver, then you need to play with one fielder’s position to deceive the batter. If he’s ready for a slower bouncer, I go slow and wide and he won’t be ready,” Mohit said.
Earlier, the Sunrisers suffered because none of their batters could convert their starts. While seven of their batters crossed the 15-run mark, only two among them made more than 25. Besides Mohit, the other Titans bowlers too were economical, with Umesh Yadav and the Afghan trio of Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad all taking a wicket each.
