Hardik Pandya of Mumbai Indians avoids a beamer bowled by Jofra Archer of Rajasthan Royals.
Jofra Archer running up his bowling mark can instil fear in a batsman’s heart as the sheer pace he generates is too hot to handle for many.
Fans got to saw the best of it during the Ashes series last year when Australian batsmen had to face the wrath of his pace; often resulting in injuries while in-form Steve Smith had to sit out of a Test due to concussion.
While the assumption was the impact would recede down in the Indian Premier League where the English bowler is featuring for Rajasthan Royals in conditions that don't really offer many fast pitches, Mumbai Indian batsmen certainly won’t agree to it.
On Wednesday when the defending champions took on RR, Archer’s gave trouble to MI batsmen in Abu Dhabi, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya in particular.
The duo made a valuable contribution in taking the side to 198 with Suryakumar scoring 79 with Hardik Pandya chipping in with valuable 30 off 19 in the closing stages.
However, the 19th over of the game left them both crawling on the ground. It started with a beamer at the beginning of the over when Hardik had to duck after a beamer from Archer missed his head by a whisker. The bowl was too much to contain as RR keeper Jos Buttler too couldn’t reach the ball in time as the ball went over the boundary in no time. Jofra was quick to apologise but the worst was yet to come.
Two balls later Suryakumar was at the receiving end as the bouncer his hit helmet directly, forcing concussion test on the ground by MI team doctor.
The right-hander could only resume his innings after the doctor gave him a go-ahead after a check-up.
Surya wasn’t deterred by the incident as he shot Jofra for a six soon after.
Interestingly, Jofra is also the fastest bowler at this year's IPL at 153.62. He has been consistent at such speed as he rules the top8 fastest deliveries with the slowest being at 151.75.
