Krunal rewarded for good lengths, more spin

KOLKATA: When Krunal Pandya was given his first over on Friday, Punjab Kings needed 103 runs from 78 balls with eight wickets in hand—comfortably attainable by T20 standards. He started with a wide but quickly adjusted to a more middle stump length and started wheeling away. Good length, on middle or off, sometimes just outside it, Pandya gives the impression of someone who could do this with eyes closed. There’s nothing great about his lengths. But it slowly squeezes the life out of a chase. In a T20 where every ball plays its part in changing the complexion of the match, Pandya is the sort of enforcer you need in the middle overs. His match-winning spell of 2/11 on Friday underscored that.

A bonus to all this is when a left-arm bowler dismisses a left-arm batter. Teams field combinations keeping left-right matchups in mind. Pandya dismissing Bhanuka Rajapaksa— his first left-hand batter wicket—with the last ball of his first over had probably not been accounted for when Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) analysts were drawing up the blueprint of this match. That’s what the human factor does. And in this case, Pandya did a superb job of enticing Rajapaksa into playing for turn with an arm ball that took a leading edge and lobbed into KL Rahul’s hands.

Last left-hander in the Punjab Kings side dismissed, Pandya got down to the business of turning the screws on the chase by stifling the right-handed batters. Conceding just four runs in his next 18 deliveries, Pandya slowly pushed Punjab Kings to a corner. End of the eighth over, they needed 96 from 72. End of 10th, 87 from 60. Liam Livingstone tried to fix the chase next over by hitting 16 off three balls from Ravi Bishnoi but Pandya again weighed in with a three-run over followed by a wicket maiden that left Punjab Kings needing 62 off 36 balls. From 7.92 to 10.33, this jump in asking rate was all Pandya’s doing.

“Krunal has been brilliant throughout the tournament,” said LSG skipper Rahul later. “This season he has really worked on his bowling. Bowling economically is important but he has been giving us twothree wickets in the middle overs.”

“I have been bowling well. For the last 7-8 months, I have been working hard,” said Pandya after the match. “I just want to mention (former India left-arm orthodox spinner) Rahul Sanghvi, who has been a big, big help for me. I had a chat with him seven-eight months back, and I told him I want to develop my skill. I felt I was always good with my mindset. I just felt if I could develop my skills, it would really help. The results everyone can see, but the effort has been there from the last eight months, trying to get better as a bowler, especially skill wise.”

Imparting spin

Spinning the ball is never considered slow left-arm bowlers’ forte, especially in T20. You also probably don’t need it. In T20, it’s more about angles, release points, speed variations and letting the ball slide with the arm or straighten. But actually spinning the ball away from the right-hander? Not very much. Pandya is working on that too as part of a more holistic approach towards bowling. “Because I am playing a lot of short-form games, you don’t realise what’s happening,” he said. “So I didn’t realise I was getting too low and my stride was too long, and in the end I just had to fire the ball in. I was playing with the batter’s mind. So I just realised if I get tall and if I impart more spin… I have always varied my pace but in that if I am able to impart spin or get the ball to grip (then) that would create a lot of doubt in the batters’ mind. Again had a word with Rahul Sanghvi. He was kind enough to help me.”

This IPL, Pandya has taken nine wickets at an economy rate of 6.18, his best till date. His progress can probably be attributed to finally coming out of the shadows in Mumbai Indians where Pandya was usually the fifth bowler, rarely the middle-over enforcer. At LSG though, he has more flexibility. Already causing problems as a much-improved bowler, Pandya promises more returns if he spins the ball consistently.