New Delhi, April 28 : If there's a young batter who's captured the imagination of cricket fans in IPL 2024, it is undoubtedly Jake Fraser-McGurk. With a high backlift, stable base, minimal footwork and wonderful bat-swing, Fraser-McGurk showed all of these qualities yet again in his sensational 27-ball 84 against Mumbai Indians, laced with 11 fours and six sixes at a strike-rate of 311.11.

Fraser-McGurk began by whipping off his wrists to take a four off Luke Wood in the gap between mid-wicket and mid-on. With his still frame and beautiful wristwork, Fraser-McGurk smashed two more fours and a six to take 19 runs off the opening over.

He welcomed Bumrah by dispatching his slower ball over long-on for six, and drilled a drive on the free-hit ball for four. Fraser-McGurk would end the over by swiping Bumrah for a four to take 18 runs off the second over.

He smacked Nuwan Thushara for three fours, before getting his fifty in 15 balls with a slog-sweep off Piyush Chawla over deep mid-wicket. After hitting Chawla for another four, Fraser-McGurk hit Hardik Pandya for two fours and as many sixes to take 20 runs in the fifth over, with the inside-out loft over mid-off being the standout.

"Yes, he had to wait for four-five games before getting a chance. But even when we were watching him in the nets, he had something different, that X-factor. Even here, he just opened up the game and because of his innings we were 92 for no loss after six overs.

"He is a natural. If you see his set-up, he believes in a stable base. And he has excellent hand speed. And when you are batting in the powerplay, you have only one fielder on the leg-side. So that's a good area to hit; even a mis-hit can get you a boundary.

"But if you see in this game, he played smart cricket. When the bowlers bowled wide, he hit a couple of sixes on the off side also. So he has that ability too, and his shot selection is very good," said Pravin Amre, DC assistant coach, in the post-match press conference.

Fraser-McGurk's 84 was also his third fifty of the IPL 2024 season, which takes his tournament runs tally to 247 in five innings at a whopping strike rate of 237.5. Brought in as a replacement for Lungi Ngidi, Fraser-McGurk didn't feature in first five matches, but is now making a big difference at the top to give DC blistering power-play runs, especially with fellow Australian David Warner recovering from a hand injury.

"He played three games for Dubai Capitals (in ILT20) and our scouting team was very keen to have him (in the DC team for IPL). Once we got an opportunity to have a replacement, even though we had a choice between a couple of players, we picked him.

"He played just three innings (for Dubai Capitals) before leaving to play for Australia but even in that, he played a couple of match-winning innings. Those knocks were something special. Given he is a young, exciting cricketer, we decided to back him," added Amre.

Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai Indians skipper, was also in praise of Fraser-McGurk's blazing knock. "It was quite amazing the way he batted. He played very calculated shots. It was a smart innings. He uses the field very well; he was trying to chip the ball if it wasn't in his arc. He was fantastic, he showed the fearlessness of youth, coming in and enjoying the sport. Very exciting, though."

Fraser-McGurk made his international debut for Australia this year, with an 18-ball 41 in the third ODI against West Indies showing the glimpse of his exciting talent, leading to calls for him to be drafted in T20 World Cup squad. Tim David, the big-hitting Australia batter watching the carnage from the Mumbai Indians' camp, gushed about the rise of Fraser-McGurk.

"It's exciting to see. As a young Aussie guy, as someone who is playing in the Australian team, it's exciting to see someone who is not in the side (Australia T20 team) playing brilliant cricket. There's nothing really more you can say than that. The amount of boundaries he is hitting - it feels like he's hitting a boundary every ball - clean striking, so it's awesome to see and hopefully if he can keep those innings up, it'll be awesome," said David.

/IANS