Islamabad [Pakistan], April 14 (ANI): Former Pakistan batter Basit Ali was left gobsmacked after witnessing Karun Nair toying with the world's best Jasprit Bumrah with a technically sound and magical strokeplay in the ongoing 18th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.

Even though Delhi Capitals antagonistically succumbed to a 12-run defeat while pursuing Mumbai Indians' daunting 206-run target, the high-scoring fixture will be remembered for Nair's valiance.

He singlehandedly carried Delhi's hopes of ending Mumbai's flawless record while defending a 200-plus target. On his return to the cash-rich league after three years, Nair decimated Mumbai's pace express and toyed with the spinners in his explosive 89 from a mere 40 deliveries without breaking a sweat.

The highlight of his swashbuckling effort in the high-scoring Arun Jaitley Stadium was how effortlessly he demolished Bumrah's prowess in the white-ball format. Basit struggled to remember a top-class batter in the past five to six years who made Bumrah tilt at the windmills the way Nair did in Delhi's home ground. For the former Pakistan batter, Nair is a 'very big player.'

'In the last five to six years, I have never seen someone play against Bumrah like this. Even if the top-class batters in the world, including Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Joe Root, Steve Smith, Jos Buttler or Travis Head, nobody has played against him like that. The way Karun Nair counterattacked Bumrah made it feel like someone was playing cricket. The way he scored over extra cover, he is a very big player,' Basit said on his YouTube channel.

By varying his pace, Bumrah tried to put Nair in an awkward spot, but the in-form star read him like a book. It was the final over of the powerplay, where Nair flaunted his power-hitting prowess. He began the over by smoking the ball past the boundary rope for a maximum.

He topped it up by dispatching the ball for a boundary on the third delivery. On the penultimate delivery of the over, he picked up the slower delivery and lofted it over long-off for another maximum. Nair celebrated his half-century with a double on the final ball and mustered 18 runs from the over.

He faced nine deliveries and garnered a whopping 26 runs, laced with three fours and two towering maximums, leaving Bumrah dismayed. For the 54-year-old, even if Nair had just 49 runs to his name instead of 89, his remarks about the Indian's stellar performance would have remained the same.

'I was told he scored 300 against England in a Test. How did he drop out of the squad? Youngsters in India and Pakistan should play with this much confidence. DC should have won. I can't understand how they lost the game. Even if he scored 49, my comments would be the same. When he played shots, it felt like there were no fielders on the ground,' he added. (ANI)