With a little help from fast bowler friend Riley Meredith, the Australian pair played a key role in Mumbai’s five-wicket win at their home Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.
The battle between the league’s two high-profile but currently ailing teams was decided largely by Sams’ impressive four-over performance, which he won 3-16, while Meredith scored with 2-27, Because he dismissed Chennai for 97, which was his second lowest score. Total in the history of IPL
Even Mumbai’s struggling batsmen could not go wrong chasing down this weak total as another Australian Tim David smashed two big sixes in an unbeaten 16 to take them to their target at 5-103 with more than five overs left.
The 29-year-old is adding to his progress for Mumbai, which led him to victory against Gujarat six days ago.
Meredith claimed the wickets of Ambati Rayudu and Shivam Dube in successive overs to reduce Chennai to 6-39 before MS Dhoni saved the Super Kings from real embarrassment with an unbeaten 36.
Meredith later joked that the speed gun in the previous match had shown him bowling around the 130kph mark, and that he had “taken it personally” after hitting 147kph against Chennai.
Mumbai’s batsmen also struggled to get into seam-friendly conditions, with all-rounder Sams getting out for just one on the night after being bowled down the No.
In that batting powerplay, fast bowler Mukesh Chaudhary bowled well, due to which Mumbai had lost 4 wickets for 33 runs at one time, Tilak Verma (34 runs in 32 balls) and David (16 runs in 7) gave the entire Mumbai Indians victory. .
Daniel Sams later said, “I just found out that I was focusing too much on the batsman and not focusing on my strength.”
“It was something to work on training and it was more about reflection. When I come out of here, I’m going to do what I do really well.
“The entire IPL this year has been beautiful wickets to bowl to. There have been some that have been flat, but there have been others that have some good pace, some good bounce and a little bit more grass. So it’s been really enjoyable.
“Obviously today’s pitch was bowler friendly so it’s good to watch T20 matches where the bowlers dominate.”