Ever since the match between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 1, Naveen-ul-Haq has become one of the most talked-about figures in IPL 2023. During that game, he had a heated argument with Virat Kohli on the field, and things escalated after the match.
However, the right-arm pacer from Afghanistan silenced some of his critics with an incredible bowling spell against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday. He finished with remarkable figures of 4/38 off his four overs.
Notably, two of his wickets came in quick succession, removing two of the most dangerous MI batsmen, Suryakumar Yadav and Cameron Green. Suryakumar Yadav (33 off 20 balls) was the first to depart, mistiming a slower leg-cutter from Naveen that clocked at 107.3 kph and was pitched at a good length.
He ended up holing out to K Gowtham at long-off. Just two balls later, Naveen dismissed Cameron Green with a similar delivery, this time an off-cutter clocked at 104.9 kph. The ball deceived Green, who was batting on 41 off 22, as it sneaked in and hit the stumps.
It left Green puzzled as to how he missed it. In response to his doubters, Naveen celebrated with fingers-in-ears gestures after taking the back-to-back wickets. The Twitterati also recognized his excellent bowling performance, which nearly brought Lucknow Super Giants back into the game.
