Karun Nair dismissal trigger for MI’s comeback, says Karn Sharma after Mumbai registered their 2nd win of the season.
Karun Nair was batting on a different pitch than the rest.
He was hitting the ball like a dream. He sent each and every MI bowler on a leather hunt to all parts of the ground. Even the peerless Jasprit Bumrah did not escape his wrath, as he took him on ruthlessly.
It seemed that Karun Nair would take the Capitals to five straight victories all by himself. Until he didn’t.
MI set a challenging goal of 206 when they batted first, but DC appeared to be cruising in their pursuit. After ten overs, they were 113 for 1, with a brilliant half-century from a returning Nair leading the attack.
In his opening over, Karn had been hit for nine. However, he finished with 3 for 36 after dismissing Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, and KL Rahul in his following three overs. Mitchell Santner bowled Nair for 89 with a delivery that was almost unplayable in between.
“At that time, the situation was like they were going 10-11 runs per over,” Karn said after the game. “So my role was just to take wickets in the middle overs, and the way they were batting, every wicket was important.
“Obviously, KL Rahul is a big name and he had finished the game for them in the last match. But all the wickets were important for us at that time. After Karun got out, their momentum broke. And after that, we got two-three wickets quickly. That changed the game.”
During the second inning, Karn, who was participating in his first game of the season, entered as an Impact Player. Another option for MI was left-arm seamer Ashwani Kumar, but Piyush Chawla, a former India legspinner, believed MI chose Karn after observing DC spinners get pitch assistance.
“They [MI] were waiting because they must be thinking whether to go with Ashwani or with Karn,” Chawla said on ESPNcricinfo TimeOut. “But I am sure they must have made up their mind looking at the first innings, the way Kuldeep [Yadav] and Vipraj [Nigam] bowled.”
“You have to give a lot of credit to Karn because it’s not easy when you come to a team after six-seven [five] games and then all of a sudden you get a chance in this kind of situation where the other team is going berserk.”