Mohammed Shami delivered a masterclass in T20 bowling to power Lucknow Super Giants to their first victory of IPL 2026.
The 35 year old was at his crafty best, dismantling the Sunrisers Hyderabad's top order and restricting them to 156/9 on a good pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, in Hyderabad.
SRH's decision to trade Shami to LSG for Rs 10 crore last year came back to haunt them big time. He might have struggled last season, managing just six wickets in nine matches but after a full season of domestic cricket, Shami seems to have clearly turned the corner.
Shami endured his share of snubs from the national selectors last year as he was time and again ignored for the Indian Test and ODI teams despite proving his fitness and form for Bengal in domestic cricket.
But the hard work hasn't gone in vain. A fit and firing Shami is back to his menacing best -- a clever fast bowler with genuine pace and an arsenal of tricks to be a force even in T20 cricket.
He started off IPL 2026 with a bang, dismissing Delhi Capitals' opener K L Rahul with his first ball of the season. He finished with impressive figures of 1/28 including 12 dot balls as LSG went down fighting despite being bundled out for 141.
Shami carried that confidence into the second match into Hyderabad where he had spent a lot of time in the IPL last season.
Shami showed supreme mastery and control with the new ball, using the slower balls to good effect on a good pitch.
Abhishek Sharma likes to dominate right from the start but he perished for a two-ball duck against LSG. Shami knew the left-hander would look for the big shot early and enticed him with a full delivery with a bit of room. He had taken off the slip fielder previous delivery which further encouraged Abhishek to throw his bat at the half-volley.
It turned out to be a perfect trap. The off-cutter clocked at 114.7 kph drew Abhishek early into the drive. The left-hander got a thick outside edge which flew to short third man where Manimaran Siddharth took a fine diving catch.
Shami then struck off his next delivery, getting rid of Travis Head (1) with the first ball of his second over. Once more, it was the slower ball that did the damage.
Head was committed to the drive too early only to realise that the ball was still to arrive while he had finished playing the shot. He ended up miscuing it on the off-side as Aiden Markram dived forward to take the catch at mid-off.
The first two overs by Shami completely turned the match on its head. Not only did he sent two of SRH's dangerous batters packing early but his dominace with the new ball rubbed on the other LSG pacers including Prince Yadav, who produced a magical inswinger to clean Ishan Kishan for 1 in the fourth over.
Liam Livingstone was lucky to survive Shami's slower balls in the fifth over, surviving a couple of mishits and play and misses.
Shami's incredible spell of 2/7 in three overs at one stage including 14 dot balls saw SRH stumble to 22/3 in six overs, having managed just one six and one four in the Powerplay. He finished off his spell soon after with a two-run over in the ninth to finish with excellent figures of 2/9 in four overs.
The 18 dot balls he sent down is the third most with the record being 20 by Deepak Chahar for CSK against KKR in IPL 2019.
'Executed the plan. Got the win,' Shami posted on Instagram after the match.
It wasn't a fiery Shami out to prove a point against his previous team, instead it was an old warhorse at work -- calm, clever, and clinical -- using every trick in the book to destroy his opponents.