Alzarri Joseph proved his worth immediately in the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) by recording the best bowling figures in the history of IPL in his debut match against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). In his debut match, Joseph claimed 6 wickets for 12 runs in 3.4 overs to better Sohail Tanvir’s record of 6/14 for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the IPL’s inaugural edition in 2008. He annihilated SRH batsmen as he became the second man to take a five-wicket haul on IPL debut.
Suddenly, Mumbai Indians (MI) had a selection headache with the returning Lasith Malinga having to sit out because of Joseph’s mind-boggling spell. Joseph’s joy was short-lived though as the young Windies pacer bowled just two overs against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), conceding 22 runs.
ALSO READ: Lasith Malinga scared to bowl Hardik Pandya in the World Cup
After the match, the veteran commentator Sanjay Manjrekar questioned the selection of Joseph ahead of Malinga. The commentator opined that Mumbai’s decision to pick the West Indian was based on “emotions” and not “cricket logic”.
Slightly disappointed to see that emotions still play a part in modern cricket. MI picking Alzarri & not Malinga was an example of this. Alzarri bowled just 2 overs & MI missed Malinga badly. Cricket will become truly professional when cricket logic prevails over emotions.
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) April 11, 2019
Fans came in their numbers to remind Manjrekar that selecting Lasith Malinga over Joseph, a bowler who in his previous match grabbed the IPL’s best bowling figures 6-12, was the emotional decision and not the other way around.
Are you serious? How can one deny chance for a guy who took the best figures in IPL history? How are you still in this business taking nonsense during and after the game? You can atleast try to think.The frustration among the viewers in India about your commentary is at peaks,man
— Prasad (@tnvd24) April 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/nits712/status/1116231610746064898
So you mean that they should have dropped someone who took 6/12 in his previous game? Is it logical? I mean, you want to sound different but this is like standing out like a fool.
— Gee Tee (@Fire_and_Move) April 11, 2019
Thankfully, logic prevailed over emotions when Dravid replaced you in 1996!
— LeftArmOrthodox (@ameyaab) April 11, 2019
He has lost it
— Piyush (@piyush_2911) April 11, 2019
To keep emotions out of play, wait for robots to play the game. As long as human beings are forming the playing XI, emotions will be there.
Cricket would not be a religion and Sachin a God, if logic would have operated the game.— Kuldeep Singh Shekhawat, RAS (@kuldeeps_s) April 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/amit77_indian/status/1116205127285792768
However, Manjrekar was not done just yet. Following Mumbai Indians’ win over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Monday night, where Malinga took four wickets for 31 runs, Majrekar took to Twitter again. He pointed to Twitter fans that his earlier stand on Malinga stood warranted thanks to the Sri Lankan’s performance against RCB at the Wankhede.
And I rest my case on this. 😋 https://t.co/x9q4tfSfbT
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) April 15, 2019
However, fans were having none of it and continued to troll the cricket-turned-commentator.
If emotions didn’t play a part in cricket you would have been long gone. As once said by Pollard and I repeat “You can continue with your verbal diarrhoea”
— Abhishek Shetty (@abhishk07) April 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/Nikhilrgupta/status/1117901273645248512
Your case didn't make any sense. Emotion would be going for malinga and logic means going with man who performed well in last game. Pathetic logic 😠
— Vishal Lathiya (@VishalLathiya28) April 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/tushjain15/status/1117863275935326210
https://twitter.com/DevalShah555/status/1117863019860484097
— Saurav Taragi (@LifevsZindagi) April 15, 2019
Mumbai Indians’ selection headaches eased as Joseph had to be ruled out of IPL 2019 with a shoulder injury, who took a bad tumble while trying to prevent the ball from reaching the boundary in an IPL game between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) on April 13.
