Former Australia star Tom Moody has reckoned that Rohit Sharma and Arjun Tendulkar both got under “enormous pressure” when the youngster was given the ball in the last over against SRH, because that wasn’t really the role they see him bowling in.
Arjun Tendulkar played his second IPL match against SRH, in Hyderabad. Similar to his debut, he bowled 2 overs with the new ball and wasn’t called upon to bowl later on. Until the last over, where SRH needed 20 runs and Abdul Samad was on the crease.
Arjun Tendulkar bowled well, sticking the wide yorkers and the line well outside the off-stump, which resulted in Samad’s run-out and later a wicket of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. With lesser runs and better batsmen, it would have been interesting to see how the 23-year-old handles the pressure.
Tom Moody suggested bowling in the death perhaps wasn’t in Mumbai Indians‘ plans, but as it turned out eventually.
“If you assess him purely on execution, he got it right. He got his line right, he bowled the side of the field that he was looking at, he got his length right, he got the number of deliveries close to yorker. It would’ve put him, as well as Rohit, in enormous pressure, because he (Rohit) wouldn’t have been planning at the beginning of the innings that Arjun Tendulkar was going to be one of his death bowlers. He has clearly got a role in that side which is to bowl with a new ball, which he has done twice now,” Moody said on ESPNcricinfo.
Moody, a former SRH coach, feels that Arjun Tendulkar’s role and his skillset is more suited to powerplay and middle-overs rather than in the death.
“I see his role potentially in the middle overs somewhere, if the timing is right. But certainly not a specialist at death. Having said that, he can walk away with that performance holding his head held high. He had tail to bowl to, had 20 runs, but we have seen going that pear-shaped as well. So, he has done well,” the Australian Giant added.
Mumbai Indians have now registered a hat-trick of wins after losses in their first two matches.
