In the run-up to IPL 2025, the ruling to allow the team bowling second in an evening match to get the ball changed anytime after the eleventh over
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NEW DELHI — In the run-up to IPL 2025, the ruling to allow the team bowling second in an evening match to get the ball changed anytime after the eleventh over, in a bid to counter the dew factor, was cited by many insiders in the tournament as a good news for a side defending totals.
At the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday evening, the ball change rule brought out a decisive twist in Mumbai Indians’ quest to defend 205/5 on a pitch that wasn’t flat per se. Just after Jasprit Bumrah removed Axar Patel, MI opted to make the ball change. It made sense as super soppers were at work during the innings break and timeout to ensure dew doesn’t have an upper hand.
A ball change followed shortly after Jasprit Bumrah removed Axar Patel, and the game was about to take a decisive twist. Karn Sharma, coming in as the impact player for MI, and Mitchell Santner managed to get better control over their craft with the changed ball, which also crucially helped them extract extra bounce, turn and grip.
It meant that the cross-bat shots and lofts, which were the staple shots of batters in the match so far owing to the 60m and 66m square boundaries, became the ones fraught with high risk. That strategy worked well for MI as Karn had Tristan Stubbs holing out to long-off and then caught the edge off KL Rahul’s booming sweep off his own bowling.
With Karn being at the forefront of MI’s comeback with the changed ball, DC suddenly were in trouble, as they had just four wickets in hand in the face of the equation becoming 46 runs needed off 27 balls. That became more dire when Trent Boult executed five yorkers in a three-run 17th over.
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The usual expectation from MI was that they would bowl Hardik Pandya for the 18th and 20th overs, while giving Bumrah the penultimate over. But MI sprung a surprise by making Santner bowl the 18th, which raised a few eyebrows, and when Vipraj Nigam hit him for a six and a four on the first two balls, DC threatened to grab another heist of a victory, just like they did against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Visakhapatnam.
But it was all a part of the setup Santner had in his mind – the boundaries came off deliveries whose speeds were above 90kmph. On seeing Nigam dance down the pitch early on the fifth ball, Santner considerably slowed the delivery coming in from round the wicket and pushed it wide outside the off-stump.
Nigam had no time to respond to Santner’s slowest ball in the game and he was easily stumped by Ryan Rickleton. After that, despite Ashutosh swatting Bumrah for two fours, MI conjured up three run-outs to grab the win in the penultimate over, including Santner getting a direct hit right from short mid-wicket.
“You can say that it (the ball change) was a game-changing moment. When the ball was going one way, it was wet while it was coming back. But the situation was such that we had to take wickets, as they were going at 10-11 runs per over. So, my and Mitchell Santner's role was to take wickets in between. When a new seam comes into play after the ball change, the seam is upright, so it gives you purchase from the wicket, and that was beneficial.
“In such matches, every wicket is important, considering the way they were playing, and how their batting was going on. Obviously, KL is a big name for them, and they finished the game very well in the last match. So all the wickets were important for us at that time. I knew how the ball will go well on the wicket.
“I didn't expect for dew to come, because in the first innings, I think there was no dew. But as a spinner, you have to take wickets in between if you want to win games. After Karun got out, the momentum of the game was broken, and two or three wickets came together,” elaborated Karn, the Player of the Match for his 3-36, in the post-game press conference.
Before the ball change, MI’s spin duo of Karn and Santner had taken two wickets off 44 runs at an economy rate of 11. But after the ball change, the duo got three wickets off 31 runs at an economy rate of 7.75. Overall, their figures made for a neat read, 5-75 and economy rate at 9.37.
For Karn, playing an impactful hand in MI’s win rekindled memories of him picking 13 wickets in the side’s title-winning campaign in 2017. After that, with stints at Chennai Super Kings (CSK, where he was a part of a title-winning team twice) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Karn was unable to leave a similar impact.
But on Sunday, in his first game for MI in IPL, at a venue that he knows by the back of his hand, Karn cracked the game open for the side to make a roaring comeback and win the game.
"First of all, it's a good moment. I came back after 6-7 years. Where I finished in 2017, I just wanted to continue from there. Actually IPL is such a tournament that you can't predict that you will be in the playing 11 or 12.
“You have to believe yourself that whenever you get a chance, you have to perform. At the end of the day, the team should win, as two points are more important. Like in the last two games, we were losing closely.
“So in this game also, we were almost batting as if it was going to be easy. At the end of the day, when I wake up in the morning, I tell myself that it's a new day, a new opportunity will come and I have to wait for that," he added.
The Mumbai Indians’ win against the Delhi Capitals was just their second victory in six matches. As DC’s rapturous home crowd was stunned into silence, MI’s on-field exuberant celebrations took center stage.
But, as a crucial part of the IPL 2025 season nears, MI’s win in Delhi and the decisive ball change could well be the turning point that revives a campaign that looked doomed early on.