On May 9, Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) entertained the crowd to the fullest at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai as the home team chased down the target of 200 for the third straight time in IPL 2023.
Sensational Suryakumar Yadav carried his red-hot form with the bat and blasted a quickfire 83 off 35 balls and young Nehal Wadhera also smashed his second fifty of the season. The duo strung a partnership of 140 runs to put MI in the driver’s seat in the run chase.
Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar claimed that SKY’s form rubbed off on Wadhera but the youngster played his own shots.
Speaking on Star Sports’ Cricket Live, Gavaskar said: “When you are batting with SKY your confidence is boosted, but the best thing about Nehal Wadhera’s innings was that he wasn’t looking to play shots like SKY. The best thing about him is that his balance was superb.”
Former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh spoke highly of Wadhera for grabbing the opportunity with both hands and repaying the faith of MI team management.
“Nehal Wadhera has made most of the opportunities count. He was being fast-tracked from U-25 to Punjab Ranji Trophy and MI scouted him well. He just made the opportunities count in the absence of Tilak Varma,” Harbhajan said.
Gavaskar also showered praise on SKY – who once again showcased his 360-degree hitting – and took the game away from RCB in no time.
“SKY was toying with the bowlers. He gives you a feeling of gully cricket when he’s batting like that. He’s just gotten better with practice and hard work. His bottom hand is so powerful that he uses it to perfection. Against RCB, he started with hitting towards long-on and long-off and later agricultured shots all around the park,” Gavaskar added.
