With a batting order which looked strong on paper but misfired on the field, Lucknow Super Giants knew that they had a chance to make inroads in the Mumbai Indians’ batting line-up if they were to defend 200 at Brabourne Stadium. That was duly filled by pacer Avesh Khan, who struck twice in the power-play to set the base of keeping Mumbai 18 runs short of chasing down 200.
Introduced from the third over, Khan began by bowling a wide against Rohit Sharma followed by beating him. Though Sharma flicked for a four through mid-wicket, Khan bounced back by conceding no run and then got Sharma to edge a short of length ball behind to the keeper. Though Khan was pushed on the backfoot by Dewald Brevis’ 13-ball 31, Khan took him out with a low full toss hit straight to cover at the end of power-play.
“The attempt was to take out wickets initially as they were playing with six batters. Our plan was to take out one or two wickets early so that we can be on top of the game. Irrespective of the team, pitch or venue, if you make 200 runs then the scoreboard pressure is on other team. When we were walking towards the ground, this was the conversation happening and talked about doing well on the field and bowling in good areas,” said Khan in the post-match virtual press conference.
There was an advice from his captain K.L Rahul when Khan was being swatted for boundaries by the young South Africa batter. “Have very good communication (with the captain). When I was trying to take wicket of Brevis, that time he said ‘length ball is picking well, you can try it’. I bowled a bouncer and then on the yorker, he was caught at cover. I have very good conversations with the captain in middle of a spell while bowling, which helps a lot.”
