Mumbai Indians' 5.25 Cr Buy Naman Dhir Wrecks Havoc With A Fifer Against In SMAT
Naman Dhir (Source: @CricCrazyJohns/X.com)
One of the best buys in the recently concluded mega-auction by the five-time champions Mumbai Indians, Naman Dhir, is known for his explosive batting in the death overs. However, while playing for Punjab during the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, he grabbed a fifer with his off-break bowling.
Defending 197 runs for victory after Anmolpreet Singh smashed a brilliant 60 with the bat, Punjab were out to stop the opposition from gaining four crucial points for victory. With an experienced bowler like Arshdeep Singh going for 47 runs in his four overs, Naman put his hand up.
Bowling his full quota of 24 deliveries, the off-break spinner picked up five wickets for just 19 runs with an economy rate of 4.8. Three of the five batters he dismissed. were caught, while the other two were LBW and stumped, respectively.
His valuable effort sent Hyderabad on the back seat as they could only reach as far as seven runs away from the target with 189 runs on the board by the end of their innings. While Naman gave away runs at an economy below five, others struggled to contain runs as the opposition batters scored runs briskly.
Mumbai Used RTM To Get Naman Back
Initially picked by Rajasthan Royals for ₹3.40 Crore before MI jumped in to activate their Right-To-Match card as RR increased the final bid amount to ₹5.25 Crore, which was later accepted by his previous side, who were in no mood to let him go.
Dhir saw three other teams Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, bidding for him, and in the end, the Hardik Pandya-led side got their all-rounder back.
In the previous season, he featured in a total of seven matches, scoring an aggregate of 140 runs with an impressive strike rate of 177.22, with his highest being 62 against Lucknow Super Giants in their last league game.