IPL: Harbhajan Singh's top 3 knocks
Harbhajan Singh has been a loyal servant of the Mumbai Indians since the inception of the IPL. He was the first captain of the Mumbai franchise and also led the team to their maiden Champions League T20 Trophy, in 2011.
Harbhajan has picked up 127 wickets in 136 games at an impressive average of 26.78 with best figures of 5/18 coming against Chennai Super Kings 2011.
Even with the willow, Harbhajan has contributed valuable runs lower down the order. Despite that, Mumbai Indians opted not to retain him in this year’s auction, which might prove to be a setback for the Men in Blue. The Turbanator will feature for Chennai Super Kings and look to perform with both bat and ball when the need arises.
On that note, let us take a look at Harbhajan's three best knocks with the bat in the IPL:
#3 45*off 30 balls vs Rising Pune Supergiants – 2016 IPL
This was the inaugural game of the 9th season of the Indian Premier League, played between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants. The Maharashtrian derby was played at the iconic Wankhede Stadium. Electing to bat, Mumbai Indians got off to a bad start, losing 4 wickets for 37 runs inside 6 overs. Things went from bad to worse when they were reduced to 51/6 by the end of 11 overs.
Harbhajan walked out to accompany Ambati Rayudu with 9 overs left in the innings. He started his innings slowly, scoring only 4 singles off the first 10 deliveries. Rayudu was then dismissed on the first ball of the 16th over and Mumbai were tottering at 68/7. This is when Harbhajan decided to cut loose. In the 19th over, he smashed left-arm pacer RP Singh for 3 boundaries, peppering the straight and leg-side boundaries.
The ball was then handed to Ishant Sharma to bowl the final over of the Innings. Harbhajan clobbered the second ball of the over straight down the ground for a boundary. He got the strike back for the last two deliveries in which he smashed a six and a four to take Mumbai Indians to a respectable total of 121/8 in the 20 overs thanks to a valuable 45 off 30 balls, which included 7 boundaries and 1 hit over the fence.
In reply, Pune reached the target of 122 in 14.4 overs, losing only 1 wicket. Although this was a poor game for Mumbai Indians, Harbhajan Singh was applauded for saving his team with the bat from an embarrassing situation.