Former Indian cricketer Hemang Badani has lauded Rajasthan Royals (RR) bowler Sandeep Sharma for stopping Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper MS Dhoni in the final over at MA Chidambaram Stadium on April 12. Badani in a tweet on April 13 asked his followers to dig out Sandeep's IPL record. He went on to write that Sandeep's IPL record is equal or better than Jasprit Bumrah who has been ruled out of the season due to recurring back injury.
“Someone should put out his Ipl record. He is on par or even better than Bumrah. Great death bowling to a master death batsman,” Badani wrote in a tweet.
One of his followers shared the statistics of both bowlers in IPL. Sandeep has 116 wickets from 106 games at an average of 26.31 and strike rate of 20.34. His economy rate is an impressive 7.76 runs per over. On the other hand, Mumbai Indians (MI) pacer has 145 wickets from 120 games at an average of 23.30 and an economy rate of 18.91. His economy rate is 7.39 runs per over.
“I was referring to their record in the Ipl and it’s here for all to see. The comparison is purely in the Ipl and it’s here to see. Never undermined bumrah just said Sandeep also has a fabulous Ipl record,” Badani wrote in another tweet as he faced backlash for comparing the two bowlers.
Sandeep was not picked in Indian Premier League (IPL) auction by any side despite a good record and a base price of Rs 50 lakh. When Prasidh Krishna got ruled out of the season due to injury, Royals called up Sandeep for trials and included him in the squad. So far, Sandeep has been impressive in the two games he has played.
In the last over against CSK, Sandeep needed to defend 21 runs in the last over. Under immense pressure against two hard-hitting CSK batters, he started off with two wides. He followed it up with two dot balls. He tried to bowl in block hole and ended up bowling two full tosses which were hit out of the park by Dhoni. CSK needed seven runs from last three deliveries. Sandeep executed the plan perfectly by conceding two singles off those deliveries. On the last ball, he bowled another yorker to keep Dhoni at bay and hand his team their first win in Chepauk since the inaugural season in 2008.
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