Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma went on raving about Mumbai Indians’ new recruit Alzarri Joseph after the young West Indies pacer came up with the best-ever bowling figures in Indian Premier League (IPL) history on his debut in the Twenty20 league on Saturday.
Alzarri Joseph broke the back of the much-fancied Sunrisers Hyderabad batting order by picking up six wickets in a dream debut as he helped Mumbai Indians defend a below-par total of 136 on a sluggish wicket at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Alzarri Joseph struck in the first ball of his IPL career, removing the dangerous David Warner. He then sent in-form India batsman Vijay Shankar walking back for 5 in his second over to dent Sunrisers Hyderabad’s chase.
Joseph didn’t end there as he removed Rashid Khan and Deepak Hooda in his penultimate over before cleaning up the Sunrisers’ tail in his final over, sending back Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Siddharth Kaul. Sunrisers were bowled out for 96 as Alzarri finished with figures of 6 for 12.
“Yes, very pleased. Winning the game is obviously a great result. I thought 136 wasn’t a great batting effort, but we bowled in the right areas, kept them guessing all the time and held our nerves.
“We were in the game till the last ball which is what we spoke of. It was a sensational bowling effort from Alzarri, to bowl like this in first game. He’s come in on a lot of confidence from the CPL and he’s carrying it here. We didn’t bat well to start with, kept losing wickets and we knew after a few overs that it wasn’t a 170-180 pitch.
“The pitch was under covers for a day, it was raining as well and the wicket was a bit sticky. So we knew that 140 would be a good score to defend because we’ve got the quality in our bowling and we back them to defend whatever we get. The bulk of the runs were scored by the top-order, but it’s not that their middle order wasn’t good and we wanted to exploit that.
“We knew that once we got an early wicket we were in the game and with the spin and the seamers we have, we knew we could knock them out in the middle. We want to win as many games as possible at the start because we know how hectic it gets in the end. A few of the guys leaving for the World Cup doesn’t help either. To start the tournament is important and the last two games shows the quality we have in our squad,” Rohit Sharma said at the post-match presentation.
