There have been quite a few little-known players that have come to the fore in this IPL. They have made themselves count with some impressive performances. The latest in this growing list of youngsters is 23-year-old left-arm medium-pacer Mohsin Khan from Uttar Pradesh.
Playing only his fourth IPL match of his career in his maiden season, Lucknow Super Giants’ Khan returned dream figures of four for 16 in his quota of four overs to star in his team’s narrow six-run victory over Delhi Capitals.
Khan, who was roped in by LSG for ₹20 lakh and who was a part of the Mumbai Indians squad previously, continued his good work from the previous match in which he took three for 24 against Punjab Kings in Pune two nights ago. On Sunday at the Wankhede, Khan bettered that performance by being more economical, giving away only four runs an over and also striking in each of his second, third and fourth overs.
As LSG posted 195 for six batting first, DC had to go after the bowlers from the start. He began with a brilliant first over, bowling four dot balls to Prithvi Shaw, maintaining a stump-to-stump line and not allowing the otherwise explosive Mumbai batsman to go for shots. Another dot ball to the equally explosive David Warner in the first over was what LSG skipper KL Rahul wanted from Khan. With only one run conceded in his first over, Khan could not have asked for a better start to his team defending a tall score.
In his second over, Khan removed Warner, who pulled a short ball to mid-wicket, where Ayush Badoni took a low catch, inches off the ground and maintaining his fingers underneath the ball. With Warner gone for 3 following his opening partner Shaw, who was dismissed in the previous over by Dushmantha Chameera, LSG were in deep trouble.
However the third wicket partnership between Mitchell Marsh and Rishabh Pant seemed to take DC back on track. The 196 target seemed achievable. But the dismissal of Marsh by off-spinner K Gowtham in the eighth over and Pant by leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi in the 11th, DC’s last hope was Rovman Powell.
Powell even took Khan apart, when the bowler came back for his third over in the innings’ 13th after a first spell of 2-0-5-1. Powell pulled Khan to mid-wicket for four and was lucky that his thick edge did not carry to Gowtham at third man. In the same over, Khan bowled Pant through the gap to further take LSG close to victory.
With two big wickets in three overs, Khan added two more in his final over (17th of the innings), those of Powell caught at deep mid-wicket and followed with that of Shardul Thakur in the same region.
Some late onslaught by Axar Patel kept the game interesting till the end but it must be said that Khan was truly the star performer with the ball on a pitch that saw 384 runs being scored in 40 overs at 9.60 an over.