How Mohammed Shami outfoxed Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma with skill and deception

Lucknow Super Giants’ 35-year-old quick Mohammed Shami turned Sunday evening into a personal masterclass, dismantling Sunrisers Hyderabad’s top order with a spell that read 2 for 9 and included 18 dot balls inside the Powerplay. The performance came laced with irony: SRH had traded him to Lucknow for Rs 10 crore only weeks earlier; last night he paid the fee back with compound interest.

Shami began over the wicket to Travis Head, luring the Australian into a familiar trap. The first three deliveries nipped back, cramping Head for room and scrambling his footwork. When the fourth finally held its line on a perfect length, Head was grateful to nudge a single and escape. The seed of doubt had been planted.

Two balls later the guile shifted target. Shami moved deep third man to deep point, advertising a wide line to left-hander Abhishek Sharma. Instead, he speared a 145-kph yorker at leg stump, pinning the batter in front. For the final delivery of the over, another fielder was pushed squarer on the off side, again promising width. Shami obliged, but the ball arrived as a leg-cutter; Sharma, through the shot early, feathered a catch to short third man and departed for a duck. The hook had been baited and swallowed.

Shami wasn’t done. Returning the next over, he unfurled another cutter. Head, still recalibrating, pressed forward, lost his bottom-hand grip and spooned a simple chance to mid-off where Aiden Markram dived forward to complete the dismissal. Two wickets, two overs, and SRH were stuttering at 14 for 2.

The veteran finished with figures that earned him the Player-of-the-Match award, but the numbers only hint at the control he exerted. Eighteen consecutive scoreless deliveries sucked the momentum out of the chase before it began.

“If he keeps bowling like this, it will be difficult for the selectors to ignore him,” former Delhi pacer Sanjeev Sharma told TOI. “Play him in the Afghanistan series. But like a dent in a car, you have to handle it with care. Similarly, his body needs careful management.”

At 35, Shami is acutely aware of the tightrope between fitness and form. A subdued IPL 2025 brought him six wickets in nine games for SRH; a subsequent Ranji Trophy campaign for Bengal yielded 67 wickets and rebuilt both rhythm and confidence. Since his last India outing at the ICC Champions Trophy last year, injuries have kept him on the periphery. Yet on nights like this, the paradox of Shami—fragile frame, unbreakable craft—resolves into something simpler: a bowler who can bend both ball and game to his will.