When Mavi took the ball in the 21st over for his second spell, the situation called for accurate execution as Suryakumar was so eager to counter-attack to get out of trouble. He demonstrated his intentions by striking over the cover on the boundary, but Mavi was ready for it. He served a length ball from the back line, and Suryakumar kicked it to the second slip, which was covered by Vivek Singh.

Mavi did not respond. He calmly turned around and went back to his mark, as if to show that he could cause the same mistake to the batsman who smashed some of the best in the business. With the next ball, he repeated the same pitch, which resulted in Suryakumar being dismissed in the same way he had intended – caught on the slip.

It doesn’t matter to me who the batsman is. All that matters to me is playing the right areas and I know that if I can do that, I will get feints, Mavi said. With the big scalp off, he then turned his gaze to new batsman Sarfaraz Khan. Unlike Suryakumar, he prefers to leave assists, and Mavi didn’t immediately realize that he needed to make him play as much as possible. Starting at length, he shifted slightly to pitching the ball up as Sarfaraz looked a bit vulnerable.

Planning and execution

With a tight pitch depriving him of a single to start the game, he made sure that left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar played a little faster for Pujara, which kept the batsman from using his feet, pinning him to one edge so he could try to attack Sarfaraz again.

Mavi continued to lure Sarfaraz out for a free kick and now it was turning into a game of cat and mouse and Sarfaraz was in no mood to take the bait.

But what Sarfaraz didn’t know was that Mavi had been bluffing all along. In the next over, seeing Sarfaraz take a step down and put his hands down, Mavi surprised the batsman with a lifted shot as Sarfaraz was in an awkward position and the ball hit his left arm and ricocheted onto the stump.

The plot was perfect and the execution is top notch again. This is something Mavi will repeat throughout the day, in which he also fired Pujara and finished at 6/44 when the West Zone lost 220 points in the first inning in the morning session of Day 2.

Having taken three wickets in the quarterfinals against East last week, Mavi has nine wickets in three innings as he does his best.the right sounds for recall to the national team. The last few months have been a roller coaster ride for him. After finishing the Ranji Trophy with 19 chips in four matches, he took part in the T20 against New Zealand and then warmed the bench throughout the IPL with Gujarat Titans. He used those two months to prepare for the game of red-ball cricket by doing long training sessions in net.

The choice of match is not in my hands. It’s up to the coach and the captain. But I used that time and practiced on the net. I bowled on the nets for a long time and was in good condition. I played 7-8 overs at the nets. I kept myself motivated, thinking I was going to get my shot soon, and I focused on improving my skills, Mavi added.

An athlete’s monitoring system, which he must wear at all times when he takes the field and while bowling in the nets, is an indicator of how the selectors and the National Cricket Academy are watching him. As part of the fast bowling pool, he checks his workload regularly. In the last three or four years, I’ve been playing well with the red ball. I hope I get to play in test matches. It’s not that I only want to play one format, I’m working hard to be ready for all three, Mavi said.