Gujarat Titans pacer Mohammed Shami was breathing fire in his first spell against the Lucknow Super Giants when the two new franchises clashed for their opening game of IPL 2022 at the Wankhede. His trademark beautiful, straight seam presentation the highlight of this seething new-ball spell.
Mohammed Shami dismissed LSG skipper KL Rahul on the first ball of the match with a peach of a delivery, swinging in, straightening, and taking Rahul’s outside edge.
Then in his second over, the Bengal seamer rattled Quinton de Kock’s stumps with another corker of a delivery. From round the wicket angle, once again with a ravishing upright seam, Shami dropped on length to de Kock. The ball pitched on its seam and sharply jagged back into the left-hander.
De Kock was too late in reading the new line of the seamed-in ball which then beat him on the inside edge, going through the bat-pad gap, hitting the top of middle and leg, pushing back the leg stump. Shami was in his aeroplane celebration with other Titans fielders reaching him.
Shami wasn’t stopping there, as he added another victim to his list. After, in the third over, Varun Aaron had got rid of Evin Lewis, Shami was given an extended spell by Pandya, no surprise there as the seamer was in sensational form.
Manish Pandey, who has plundered big runs in the recent Ranji Trophy, looked clueless against Shami as the fast bowler went through his defences too, ending his powerplay spell of 3 overs for 3/10.
The Gujarat Titans are in disarray – by the end of the powerplay, at the time of writing, they are 32/4! Titans have made their first statement in the IPL, and it was Mohammed Shami who led it from the front with the ball.
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