The competition in IPL 2023 is very tight: Jason Behrendorff

On Tuesday, May 9, Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) squared off in the 54th match of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The five-time IPL champions defeated the visitors by six wickets and climbed to the third spot in the IPL 2023 points table.
 
MI pacer Jason Behrendorff, who grabbed three wickets during the clash against RCB, feels the ongoing edition of the IPL is so tight. The Australian gave MI an early lead by dismissing Virat Kohli and Anuj Rawat and then crushing a century-plus stand between Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis. He stated that the victory was crucial for Mumbai and that they expected to maintain their momentum.

“The competition's so tight (this year). This was a very important win for us, that's for sure. So hopefully we just need to keep this momentum rolling. We've got three big games coming up,” Behrendorff said in the post-match presentation.

He then talked about how MI broke the partnership between Maxwell and Du Plessis, adding that they had a few different plans and a couple of things nearly worked. 

“I think the partnership was about 100 or 50 balls at one stage. So, we really needed, to break that partnership. We had a few different plans, a few things nearly worked and then yeah, we were able to sort of crack through it at the back end, which gave us a really good opportunity to dry them up towards the end of the innings.

If we can take wickets at regular intervals and it stems the flow of the batters and gain, like we were able to take consistent wickets throughout the innings, which helped after that big partnership,” he added.

We’ve got SKY, who is at a different level: Behrendorff

The 33-year-old also praised Suryakumar Yadav for his outstanding effort in a 200-run chase, stating he was performing at an enhanced level. Suryakumar smashed 83 off 35 balls and guided MI to win with 21 balls to spare. The pacer went on to say that MI's batting lineup has some excellent choices, which is crucial for them. 

“It's a credit to our batting group. We've got a really long batting line-up. We’ve got SKY, who is at a different, different level. He's been batting amazingly. We’ve seen what Timmy David can do at the back end. And then Nehal (Wadhera), who has come in in the last few games in particular and has really taken the game on. So, we've got some great options, which is really important,” he concluded.