Jaiswal vs Archer: a ballad of fusion music and pure vibes

Imagine you could ask for qualities to be the perfect batter. What would you ask?

The ability to pick length early? Height? An array of wide shots at your disposal, those you can audaciously show off with thousands in attendance? Or maybe just a clone of Yashasvi Jaiswal in his current mood?

And perhaps Jofra Archer is the embodiment of a perfect fast bowler - the high-arm, repeatable action, searing speeds and an athletic body.

On Sunday an imperious Suryakumar Yadav and a belligerent Tim David might have shred Rajasthan Royals' death overs into pieces as Mumbai Indians registered the first successful 200-plus chase in the IPL at the Wankhede Stadium. The enthralling act, though, was the duel between Jaiswal and Archer.

Jaiswal is the human equivalent of fusion music. His build, face and frame could be mistaken for a fresh-from-school lad's. But his audacious strokeplay - the authoritative cuts, the disdainful pulls, the inventive drives - belie his age. Sure, his height helps to an extent, in that he uses his reach to slice the ball through point and takes long strides to get to the pitch of the ball to attack spin.

Archer is pure vibes - lean figure, sporting dreadlock and tattoos, with a small matter of bowling fast. Bloke last played proper, top-flight cricket in 2019 before being sidelined by injuries for a couple of years. He returned to display a skill the human body is not naturally meant to - run in and bowl fast - and picked up three wickets in his first competitive game in over two years.

In IPL 2023, Archer has not been part of the XI regularly. He was playing only his third game this season on Sunday and began with a couple of friendlies - short, harmless deliveries in late 130s. Jaiswal took full toll of the second. Banged short from around the stumps, Jaiswal duly pulled it well over deep backward square leg.

Archer had overstepped on that occasion but delivered the free hit at 142.2 clicks and the deliveries that followed only rose in speeds. The last couple of balls in that over were speared at 148 kph and 149.3 kph respectively and on both occasions, Jaiswal was squared up and beaten all ends up.

Jaiswal has been the leading run-scorer in the powerplay in IPL 2023 and his strike rate of 165.69 is only bettered by Faf du Plessis (173.27) and Ajinkya Rahane (222.22) among batters with at least 100 runs in the phase. He showed every bit of his range against Riley Meredith by hitting him for four fours in the penultimate over of the powerplay. Royals had rocketed to 65 for 0 at the end of six overs on the back of Jaiswal's 23-ball 41. His opening partner Jos Buttler's contribution was only 11 off 14.

Most of Mumbai's bowlers bore the brunt of Jaiswal's class. Legspinner Piyush Chawla was brought on to stem the run-flow and responded by dismissing Buttler and later bamboozled Devdutt Padikkal. But Jaiswal took 23 off the 11 balls he faced against Chawla, hitting him for two fours and two sixes. Half-trackers from the legspinner were walloped over the ropes and Jaiswal was unafraid to play the reverse sweep against the wrong'uns. Against Royals batters not named Jaiswal, Chawla conceded 11 off 13 balls.

Before this season, Jaiswal had only faced 134 balls outside the powerplay and scored 181. This year he has scored 201 runs in 131 balls after the first six overs, at a healthy strike rate of 153.43. He used the crease well to get inside the line to scoop-pull the short of length balls in the arc from deep square leg to long leg or to make room and explore the arc between wide long-on and cover-point.

Picture the sequence of 4, 4, 4 that took him past the century-mark. Jaiswal first moved towards off, allowing Meredith to aim middle and leg, only to wristily flick it wide of fine leg. A ball later he picked the off-pace length ball to heave it perfectly in the gap at deep midwicket to bring up a maiden hundred in the format off 53 balls. Then, he backed away, saw the slower length ball outside off and used the width to crash it through backward point.

And so, when Archer came back for his last over with figures of 3-0-22-1, Jaiswal was readily waiting on 104 off 54. After R Ashwin got off strike on the first ball, Archer had men stationed at fine leg, deep backward square leg, deep midwicket, long-on and deep backward point. The short-ball ploy was well advertised as he ran in from around the stumps for the final five deliveries of the battle.

Archer took pace off and bowled the first two of those into the surface spotting Jaiswal back away to make room, past his attempted swishes. On the next two balls, though, a predictable off-pace length ball travelled the distance - first via a loft over long-off and then via a heave over deep midwicket. In a typical fast bowler's fashion, Archer then responded with a 145.9 kph snorter outside off to undo Jaiswal.

In the following over, the last of the innings, Jaiswal would hit two more fours off left-arm pacer Arshad Khan before being dismissed for 124, the highest score by an uncapped player in the IPL. A hundred and twelve out of those were through boundaries as he scored 67 off 24 in the last eight overs when Royals scored 99. The next-best score for the team on the day was Buttler's 18. That he was unflinched in his duel with Archer and stuck to his technique impressed Tom Moody, who was at the Under-19 Men's World Cup in South Africa in 2020, where Jaiswal topped the charts and returned a Player-of-the-Tournament performance.

"You can just see there was something unique… He was at a different level than all his peers across the globe at that point," Moody said on ESPNcricinfo T20 Time:Out.

"He's absolutely come of age. He's facing a very good bowling attack. Jofra Archer cranked it up [on Sunday]. He was bowling close to 150 kph regularly. [Jaiswal] weathered that storm, he took him on early. His first ball went for four, his second ball went for six out of the ground. Jofra came back with something close to 150 that beat his outside edge.

"But his composure… his position at the crease whilst playing that delivery was strong. He was not leg side and was very much in line with it. He has got a pure game that he just plays proper cricketing shots and holds a good position at the crease. Every time he grows - and that's another step today - he grows in presence in the game."

Kumar Sangakkara, Director of Cricket at Royals, was also effusive in his praise for Jaiswal.

"[Our conversations are] about playing good shots, trusting his ability and reading the game situation really well," Sangakkara said. "And when he does get a start, about maximising [his stay] and to keep that intent going throughout the innings. Before this season he hadn't batted much outside the powerplay. But today and in the previous game, he showed that when he keeps his intent going and is looking for boundaries and knows his scoring areas, he has the ability to play the big innings for us."

Jaiswal firmly has the IPL 2023 leading run-scorers' hat on. None more apt than one for the perfect batter.