AHMEDABAD: Southpaw Tilak Varma smashed 43 runs off 32 balls in five innings before his maiden IPL century at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Monday. The buzz surrounding his batting form grew stronger with each passing match. Answering all those questions, the 23-year-old reinforced his value to the team with a strike that was balanced and aggressive in equal measure. His 101 off 45 balls, studded with seven sixes and eight fours, took MI to 199/5, which proved too steep for Gujarat Titans (GT), who lost by 99 runs.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!Tilak entered the crease as Titans new-ball operator Kagiso Rabada spewed fire and started the speedometer with his lightning strikes, started knocking around by nudging the ones and twos and bowled the odd ball but crucially steadied the ship along with Naman Dhir to bring a semblance of calm to Mumbai Indians. His innings consisted of two parts — the first 22 balls yielded only 19 runs, without a single hit to the fence. The rest of the innings was a blur of fours and sixes, a display of unstoppable hitting power.
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Matthew Hayden reacts after Gujarat Titans’ defeat against Mumbai IndiansTilak’s childhood coach Salam Bayash reflected on the minor changes the batsman had made in his game. “I told him to spend some time in the crease before going to shoot and also to reduce the reverse sweep and play straight. The pitch was not that easy to bat and the Titans attack was good. I am happy with his century. He did not play any reverse sweep. Almost all his shots were either straight or played straight,” said Bayash.Even the opposition was left in awe. Gujarat batsman Matthew Hayden, in particular, was left shell-shocked. “You could see the pitch had cracks, it was up and down. All credit to Tilak Varma who bowled brilliantly from 46/3. I was talking to a fisherman once and I asked him about longevity in his life and in his career and he said when there are plenty of fish around, everyone catches fish.” But what he (Varma) did was that no one else was catching fish when he was catching fish.“We all know that MI are a dangerous side. They are notorious starters. As an opposition side, we knew that and we blinked. And when you blink against a world-class player like Tilak Varma, even on a wicket that’s a bit spicy, it leads to your downfall. We couldn’t really pull back the negative momentum that was going our way because of the performance we saw,” Hayden said.
