A perfect over puts Kartik Tyagi in focus
KOLKATA: A day after Rajasthan Royals fended off Punjab Kings in an intense bidding session to pick Kartik Tyagi at R 1.3 crore from a base price of Rs20 lakh last year, he posted an Instagram video to let the world know where his real talent lies—hitting the blockhole length. In the video, he picked six dismissals from the U-19 trination series against England and Bangladesh from a few months back—five bowled, one caught-behind, all off deliveries full and fuller in length. Watch it over and over and his consistency at landing the ball under the eye grows on you. With a classical high-arm action, Tyagi is a fast bowler who consistently attacks the stumps at over 140 kph. When you have both speed and unerring accuracy, you have a winner. When you possess both and you are just 19 years old, you have a prodigy.
A month after the IPL auctions, Tyagi gave Royals more reasons to believe in him. In Potchefstroom, during the U1-9 World Cup quarter-final against Australia, the UP teen trapped captain Mackenzie Harvey legbefore and cleaned up Lachlan Hearne in the first over of the innings. He picked two more wickets in his next two spells, reducing Australia to 68/5. Two more wickets in the semi-final against Pakistan on February 4—one off the yorker length and the other short and climbing— boosted Tyagi’s credentials as a hostile bowler capable of taking wickets even in the middle overs.
But it wasn’t to be a smooth transition to the IPL for the talented quickie. First, he has to miss a portion of the 2020 season after testing positive for Covid-19. In his place, another young, upcoming player with serious pace—Chetan Sakariya—shone for Royals (and eventually found his way to an India debut). On recovery, Tyagi finally made his debut in the IPL, but it didn’t go well. He picked up just nine wickets in 10 outings and conceded at an economy of 9.61.
There was an excellent opportunity waiting for him though, one that was a direct result of Indian cricket’s now established protocol to nurture young fast bowlers: Tyagi was picked as a net bowler for India’s tour of Australia at the end of the year. Not only did he get to learn and play with India’s vaunted pace attack, he was got to be a part of perhaps the most thrilling series win in the history of Indian cricket. In the one chance he got to play a match there, Tyagi hit opener Will Pucovski with a bouncer in a practice game against Australia A.
Yet again, he was primed to make a breakthrough in the IPL. Except this time, he got injured. Before he could recover from the injury, the season had been suspended due to the deadly second wave of the pandemic in India.
All of this is to say that Tuesday’s game against Punjab Kings held great significance for the young bowler. Which makes his near-magical last over, which everyone from Jasprit Bumrah to Dale Steyn gushed over—”close to the best last over (defending) ever!” Steyn tweeted—even more remarkable.
He took the ball with the almost impossible task of defending four runs from six balls, after having gone for 28 runs without a wicket in his previous three overs. But he had made up his mind.
“I wanted to bowl six yorkers,” Tyagi told team-mate Mahipal Lomror in a video posted on iplt20.com after the match.
His plan did not start well. The first ball was a full toss, but Aiden Markram couldn’t time it well. Everyone deserves a bit of luck, and Tyagi made it count. Latching on to Markram’s eagerness to drive, he went wider and fuller. Markram managed an inside edge for a single. Three needed off four. On strike—Nicholas Pooran on 32 off 21 balls. Tyagi pitched it full again, almost a yorker, but making the ball leave Pooran, prompting him to try and steer it past the wicket-keeper. Instead, he guided it straight to Sanju Samson’s gloves.
Three from three. Deepak Hooda on strike. Kings captain KL Rahul literally on the edge of his seat. Remember Hooda’s 64 off 28 balls against Royals during the first part of the tournament? Didn’t matter to Tyagi. He coolly observed Hood walking across the stumps and bowled even wider. No run. Three needed from two balls.
Next delivery, Hooda stood on his off-stump and chased the ball. Again, Tyagi shaped the ball to leave the batter and pitched it full. Hooda edged it to Samson. Three runs from one ball. You can’t run it so it has to be a clean boundary, if not a six. Advantage bowler. Tyagi glided in and bowled a perfect yorker on the sixth stump, impossible to lift, impossible to drive. Fabian Allen could not even connect. An improbable win for Royals and an over from Tyagi that read: (0-1-)W-0-W(-0). Not since Munaf Patel (for Royals v Mumbai Indians) in 2009 has a bowler defended four runs in the last over.
It was an over that yet again marked Tyagi out as one whose time is fast approaching: a cool head, that accuracy, the ice in his veins under pressure, the ability to move the ball, land his yorkers and his natural pace.
Born in Hapur to a farmer, sent to Meerut to train with the big boys, a first-class debut at 16—Tyagi is another promising story from India’s hinterland. He is yet to play for India. But he is paving his path alright, one yorker at a time. Tuesday’s heist in Dubai was a huge leap towards that target. Jasprit Bumrah wouldn’t have tweeted otherwise.