Mumbai Indians (MI) lost the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) but Tilak Varma won everyone's hearts with his lightning knock in the Indian Premier League's (IPL) 2023 battle of heavyweights at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Sunday (April 2). However, despite Tilak's blitzkrieg of 84 off 46 balls, Rohit Sharma's brigade suffered an eight-wicket drubbing as RCB chased down the 172-run target with 22 balls to spare.
But Tilak, through his exemplary batting, once again proved why he is touted as the future of Indian cricket. But more than his batting what hogged more limelight was the ‘helicopter shot’ that he launched in the last ball of MI's innings. Meanwhile, former India's star batter and exceptional fielder Mohammad Kaif compared Tilak's ‘Helicopter shot’ with the proprietor of the shot MS Dhoni. Kaif said that if you look at the shot in the mirror, it'll look like Dhoni.
Varma smashed Harshal Patel for a massive six via the 'Helicopter shot' in the last ball of the 20th over of MI's innings to help them post a challenging total of 171/7.
"Leg side is his strong suit. He uses his bottom hand but he makes room as well, hits sixes straight down the ground and plays the scoop shot. So it is not that he can only score on the leg side. The helicopter shot - if you watch it through a mirror, you will feel it is MS Dhoni because you will see him as a right-hander there," Kaif told Sports Star.
Kaif while lauding Varma's exceptional batting said that the 20-year-old showed courage while playing for Paltans and was consistent with the bat even when the chips were down. MI had a nightmarish season last year when they finished bottom of the table as they won just four out of 14 matches they played. The only positive MI had last season was Tilak, who amassed 397 runs in 14 matches that he played.
"The most difficult time was last year. Mumbai were struggling and were losing matches continuously, but his bat kept on firing. So he showed that he has courage. He played for the first time for the Mumbai Indians and scored regularly and he continued that form here," Kaif further added.
Former India's explosive batter Virender Sehwag also was effusive in showering praise on Tilak as he said that the young gun batted outstandingly well and his shot selection was bang on against Faf Du Plessis-led RCB.
"Tilak Varma batted amazingly well. Wickets kept falling from one end but he continued playing his shots. His shot selection was spot on. At times, players get scared when wickets fall and stop playing their shots, but Tilak Varma didn't do that," Sehwag said.
MI will now look to get back to winning ways as they will next face Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on April 8.
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