IPL 2024: Steve Smith is baffled that Bumrah only has one over through the thirteenth over

Former Australia captain Steve Smith expressed his confusion at Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya’s strategies in the team’s IPL record-breaking defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad. He also expressed his inability to understand why top bowler Jasprit Bumrah bowled only six deliveries until the match’s thirteenth over.

On Wednesday night, Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated the similarly aggressive Mumbai Indians by 31 runs, posting the highest-ever IPL total of 277/3 in an impressive exhibition of power-hitting.

After SRH skipper Pat Cummins (2/35), Bumrah was the second-most economical bowler in the game, giving up 36 runs in his four overs without taking a wicket.

“Some of their bowling adjustments for Mumbai in the first inning confused me. Smith said to host broadcaster “Star Sports” that Bumrah bowled in the fourth over and went for five. “We didn’t see him again until the 13th over when they were on 173,” Smith said.

“I think they missed a trick there, bringing him back only in the 13th over. All the damage had been done. You needed your best bowler to be coming back and taking some wickets in that period,” he said.

That struck me as the primary error out of the few that he made. One of the world’s greatest bowlers just cannot bowl one over.

Smith said that Bumrah was ineffectual because of his belated return to the assault.

“You simply have to bring your best bowler back earlier than you would have liked when the ball is moving around like that.” It’s all about adjusting on the go. If I had tried to get more wickets in the fifteenth or sixteenth over, I may have bowled Bumrah out; if he had, you would have still had to reduce the pace.

“It really doesn’t matter who bowls if the guy is batting at the end; we saw that with Bumrah in the last two overs, and he still got smacked with the bat at the back end,” the man said.

“I was just confused that he bowled only one over until the 13th over. If he had returned earlier and taken some chances, things would have been very different, but they got 277. They could have been reduced to 240 and might have chased those down.”

Smith said that the match turned out to be a hard-hitting battle that was difficult to understand. “…a total of 38 sixes, the ball was just flying everywhere.” The game was amazing.

Former cricketer Brian Lara praised Abhishek Sharma of the SRH for smashing a career-best 63 off only 23 balls.

“One of my favourite young hitters is Abhishek Sharma…Despite not having a lot of muscle, he can hit the ball and it remains struck when he does. “I believe there was a particular blow today,” he said.