For a country that climbed the Associate leader with pace prowess, Afghanistan have come a long away to establish themselves as the best spin-bowling nation in T20 cricket. Their latest IPL superstar Noor Ahmad added to the repute on Sunday with a brilliant googly to get the better of Naman Dhir.
Mumbai Indians fought back well after a top-order collapse that left them reeling at 36/3 to post a competitive 155/9 on the board against Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk on Sunday. Suryakumar Yadva and Tilak Varma led the way with a 51-run fourth wicket stand off 35 balls but once they fell in quick succession, the onus fell on Naman Dhir to continue rallying proceedings even as wickets kept tumbling at the other end. The 25-year-old looked in the zone to execute his role as he built his way up to 17 runs, and could have added many more runs to the Mumbai total were it not for a moment of sheer genius from Noor Ahmad.
The Afghan spinner came on to complete his quota in the 17th over and found himself going head to head against Dhir immediately. Noor, trundling in from over the wicket, floated a ball on yorker length outside leg-stump to prompt a sweep from his counterpartbut the Kookaburra ended up pitching outside the reach of Dhir. However, while everyone watching expected an inevitable wide call given Noor’s stock delivery as a left-arm wrist-spinner turns towards the leg side of a right-handed batter, the white rock spun across sharply to go around the legs of Dhir and rattled into the middle-stump, rendering the batter speechless.
Dhoni behind the stumps looked impressed as well such was the quality of the delivery and Twitterati was all praises for the young Afghan spinner who finished with potentiall match-winning figures of 4/18 from his four overs.
WHAT A BEAUTY!
Perfect!
NOOR AHMAD, THE MAN FOR CSK!
— Shafeeque Suhail (@ShafeequeSuhail) March 23, 2025
Match 3. WICKET! Over: 16.3 Naman Dhir 18(12b) bowled by Moor Ahmad
MI 118/6
#CSKvMI #TATAIPL #IPL2025 pic.twitter.com/Kp5yvn0Xtc— sports (@sports1684611) March 23, 2025
what aplayer!
Noor!
#IPL2025: #WICKET! Over: 16.1 Naman Dhir 17(12) b Noor Ahmad, Mumbai Indians 118/7.#IPL2025Updates #Sports #Cricket
— Lokmat Times Nagpur (@LokmatTimes_ngp) March 23, 2025
Naman Dhir departs for 17 and MI are 7 down! Noor finds himself on a hat-trick. #MIvsCSK #RohitSharma #IPL2025 #IPLUpdate #Mumbailndians #ChennaiSuperKings
— agsportsofficals (@AniketG31109330) March 23, 2025
Wow!
BEAUTIFUL DELIVERY BY NOOR AHMED TO DISMISS NAMAN DHIR !!!
JUST WOOOOOOOOOOOW 😳😳😳😳— Dr Khushboo 🇮🇳 (@khushbookadri) March 23, 2025
Superb!
What a delivery from Noor Ahmad. Gets Naman Dhir bowled around his legs to pick his fourth wicket in the match. A memorable debut definitely in CSK colours. #CSKvsMI
— Debasis Sen (@debasissen) March 23, 2025
Someone frame that Noor Ahmed’s Naman Dhir’s wicket, just wow. The X factor of CSK. #CSKvsMI
— Ratnesh (@ratnesh03079) March 23, 2025
