Went through lots of video analysis to play Mustafizur better: Chris Morris

In the 42nd match of the IPL between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils, Delhi had lost their opener Quinton de Kock due to an umpiring error in the 10th over. With 69 needed from the last 10 overs, the match was still in the grasp for the Delhi, but they were up against the current bowling sensation, Mustafizur Rahman.

With two youngsters Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant out there in the middle and Mustafizur’s capability to turn matches on its head kept Sunrisers in the hunt. The first two balls went for singles and in the third ball, Pant read the off-cutter from Rahman and sent it into the stands. After the six, he rotated the strike and came back on strike in the last ball of the over, where he got a low full toss and he dispatched it to the mid-wicket fence.

Later, the Daredevils all-rounder, Chris Morris conveyed the idea behind it. “I think we took a little bit of time, obviously, watching the videos of how Steven Smith played him. And then how Ashwin played him in the last game. Specially, for right-handers,” Morris said, in the post-match press conference.

Steven Smith of Rising Pune Supergiants was extremely good against Mustafizur, when he took him for four fours in the two overs he played off him. Smith was clearly reading the ball from his hands and thereby nullifies the impact of his variations. On 10th May, Ravichandran Ashwin was promoted up the order by RPS and he seems to play Mustafizur well, by coming down the track and stepping across the stumps.

“He’s an unbelievable bowler at the age of 20. It’s scary to see. So for a guy who’s doing so well in the IPL, his first IPL especially, we’ve got to pick up the box to try and combat what he’s putting down. There’s a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes that lot of people don’t know. We analyze quite a lot and come up with game plans. And fortunately, it worked today,” Morris said.

Morris praised Rishabh Pant on his great performance in the match against Sunrisers, by scoring 39 runs off 26 balls and for being involved in the unbeaten match-winning partnership of 72 runs with Sanju Samson.

“Look, I think when you’ve got Rishabh Pant, who’s an unbelievable talent – he just comes in and ‘see ball, hit ball’. It doesn’t matter who the bowler is. It’s unbelievable to watch. I thought he played outstandingly. We’ll take a lot of confidence out of this win,” Morris said.

“I think the key was we played cricket shots. You know, there wasn’t slogging. There was genuine cricket shots. Quiney [de Kock] showed us today how to play a ball that’s swinging. You’v got experience in Nehra and you’ve got Bhuvi, who swings it both ways. So I thought it was excellent from the way they played today. I take my hat off to Mr. Pant and Sanju, because they played outstanding knocks today,” Morris added.

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