Tasked to defend 20 runs in the final over, Arjun Tendulkar held his nerves to help secure a 14-run win for Mumbai Indians (MI) against the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Tuesday. Arjun, who is the son of batting great Sachin Tendulkar, conceded just five runs, scalped his maiden IPL wicket and ended the match with figures of 1/18 in 2.5 overs. The 23-year-old dismissed Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the penultimate delivery of the match to secure MI's third straight win in the tournament.
While several current and former cricketers hailed Arjun for keeping his composure in a pressure situation, former SunRisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody suggested that it's too early to call the youngster a "death-over bowler".
"If you assess him purely on execution, he got it right. He got his line right, he bowled the side of the field that he was looking at, he got his length right, he got the number of deliveries close to yorker. It would've put him, as well as Rohit, in enormous pressure, because he (Rohit) wouldn't have been planning at the beginning of the innings that Arjun Tendulkar was going to be one of his death bowlers," Moody said during an interaction on ESPNcricinfo.
However, Moody, who was the coach of SRH when they won the IPL in 2016, feels that Arjun can be used in the middle overs, depending on the situation.
"He has clearly got a role in that side which is to bowl with a new ball, which he has done twice now. I see his role potentially in the middle overs somewhere, if the timing is right. But certainly not a specialist at death. Having said that, he can walk away with that performance holding his head held high. He had tail to bowl to, had 20 runs, but we have seen going that pear-shaped as well. So, he has done well," he added.