The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
NUMBER PLATE
SYNOPSIS:
Giants slayer Krunal Pandya sucker-punches Bangalore, who try to rally back through youngsters Travis Head and Sarfaraz Khan. But RCB’S pop-gun bowling attack come a cropper against Rohit Sharma, while Kieron Pollard reserves special treatment for his Aussies mates.
Giants slayer
It was the kind of bowling action you expect to see during a Sunday gully match when a kid comes to bat. The bowler will run in with his usual run-up but then suddenly bend down and slip in a gentle underarm delivery. Only that this was an IPL match on a Wednesday evening in front of 30,000+ people, and Krunal Pandya was bowling to Travis Head. Even though the Mumbai Indians’ left-arm spinner did bend down unusually low in his delivery stride, he wasn’t quite doing a Trevor Chappell. And the ball was darted in with a whippy motion as fast as he could. The attempt at let’s call it the ‘submarine’ ball, bowled from around the wicket to the left-hander, was more to deceive Head assuming he were to step down the crease. This was the 16th over after all. Unfortunately for the older of the Pandya siblings, the ball embarrassingly was too wide of leg-stump and beat a diving Parthiv Patel to slip away for five wides.
But when Krunal did keep his body and head in the right place, he proved to be quite a handful for Bangalore’s power-packed batting line-up. He also ended up bowling an over that at this point in his career surely will count in the ‘can tell his grandkids someday’ category, dismissing both Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in the space of four deliveries.
Krunal’s is what you can call a T20-era left-arm spinner bowling action. There’s no languid build-up into the pivot position. It’s all too rushed with hands and legs all moving frantically. But on Wednesday he displayed skills that even traditionalists will take note of. And especially so in the manner he set up the wickets of Kohli and de Villiers. It was an intriguing battle really; a novice against two masters at their prime, and Krunal showed understandable nerves in his first over as he sprayed the ball around, dishing out three wides, all down the leg-side.
Having seen Kohli whip a length delivery the on-side, he telegraphed the RCB captain’s intentions of stepping out and pushed the next one through fuller thus ensuring that the attempted inside-out drive landed up going straighter and into Tim Southee’s hands at mid-off. To de Villiers, Krunal first beat him in trajectory as the right-hander positioned himself for a cut. The next ball, AB gave himself room again and this time the bowler tossed the ball in the air to deceive the South African in length. That resulted in the South African fatally dragging his back-foot out and getting stumped. And the celebration was as manic as what we’ve come to expect from the Pandya siblings, with Krunal running laps around almost every single teammate and breaking into a jig for good measure. Later in the day, his captain would rave about his confidence as a bowler, insisting that he sets his own fields.
Head and Sarfaraz rally
KRUNAL’S double-strike sucked out all the momentum that RCB’S starry pair had built up to that point, And only nine runs were scored off the subsequent 16 deliveries as Shane Watson too fell by the wayside. That left Travis Head playing his maiden IPL match and Sarfaraz Khan batting for the first time at Wankhede as a RCB player to rebuild the innings. On first impression, Head comes across like a one-shot wonder, clearing his front-foot and trying to swing every ball towards cow-corner. At the other end, Sarfaraz always seems to have one shot too many for every ball he faces. To Head’s credit, even though there were a few hits and misses, the young Australian connected every time the Mumbai bowlers erred in The 62 versus Royal Challengers Bangalore was Rohit Sharma's 27th 50-plus score in the IPL. He's joint second with Hyderabad captain David Warner, both just one behind Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir. most (4).
Mumbai Indians bowled as many as 10 wides, with Krunal Pandya guilty of bowling the
line or length, and ended up as the topscorer for the hosts, scoring a 24-ball 37. Sarfaraz played his part too, once again showing his adeptness to manufacture shots behind the wicket. Often he ended up playing a number of shots in the air even before the ball arrived, and when Jasprit Bumrah in particular got his length right, hardly made contact with the ball. At one point, he hadn’t got going at all stuck at 12 off 12 balls. Off the next five, he smashed 16 as the Mumbai bowlers began pitching it short. He smashed a double-handed forehand to a bouncer from Mitchell Mcclenaghan to launch it over deep midwicket and then swung a slower delivery that pitched well outside off-stump over the deep mid-wicket fence. The partnership helped RCB post a competitive total of 170.
RCB’S pop-gun attack
It’s been a tournament where teams have won chasing almost every time. And for the second match in a row, RCB’S bowling came a cropper. That Bangalore’s bowling has been their bane throughout their IPL history is so well-publicised a fact it sounds boring now. But it’s amazing that they still go into every auction and fail to strengthen their bowling arsenal to any great effect. Yes, they are missing Mitchell Starc and Samuel Badree badly this year, but despite ringing in the changes in their bowling attack on Wednesday, they still never looked good enough to stop Mumbai from chasing their total down, especially if Rohit Sharma got going. As it turned out, the Mumbai captain did get going, and like he does repeatedly year after year at Wankhede, took charge of his team’s pursuit and powered laid the foundation for the first home win of this season. That Watson continues to be RCB’S best bowler this year is a brazen example of how toothless their attack is overall.
There’s sense of indefatigability that’s unique to Rohit’s batting in the IPL. No other batsman, even Kohli, comes close. It’s like if he just survives the first couple of overs, you know he’s in for a big haul. And the hapless RCB attack looked even more out of depth as Rohit, who returned to the top of the order, began clearing the fences, taking on left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla. There’s a special joy that Mumbai bowlers who play for outstation franchises seem to derive in dismissing Rohit. It’s not always too subtle either. Like Dhawal Kulkarni did on Saturday, it was Abdulla’s turn here to get payback for the two sixes his long-standing Mumbai teammate had smashed off him, as he got him caught at long-off for a 44ball 62. By then Rohit had more or less set the game up for his team.
Pollard and his Aussie mates
It’s not like Kieron Pollard doesn’t like smashing every bowler that he comes face to face with over the ropes, but you can a sense a special delight whenever he’s hitting sixes off an Australian. His one-upmanship with Watson in particular goes back a few seasons now, and he didn’t wait to take him on, smashing him for two fours in their first exchange before finishing the match off with a demonic six over square-leg and a couple of fours off the Aussie all-rounder, with a stare or two thrown in there. Kane Richardson wasn’t spared either, as the big Trinidadian who finished unbeaten on a 19ball 40, hit him for back-to-back sixes. THREE SUCCESSIVE wins in as many fixtures in their maiden campaign, it can be safely assumed that Gujarat Lions haven't had the first-timers' blues. With a team as balanced and resourceful as Suresh Raina is marshalling, you wouldn't expect them to show any in the first place. Then, as Raina's ex-skipper would readily admit, requisite ingredients don't always guarantee instant results, especially in the shortest format. For Raina, though, everything has fallen into place as though by sheer default and apart from the opening fixture against Mumbai Indians, they were hardly even stretched.
They will be fairly confident to extend their winning streak to four games, with Sunrisers Hyderabad lined up next. The latter had reeled off to a familiarly uninspiring start, before skipper David Warner bludgeoned them to their first win of the season. Them throwing up a robust challenge to progress to the knockout will squarely depend on his contributions with the bat, and relievingly for them, he has been in fine touch-scoring with 171 runs in three matches.
With bat
If Warner has been in electrifying form, his compatriot Aaron Finch has been in even more devastating form, stamping his matchwinning credentials in the all three matches with scores of 67*, 50 and 74. It was not just unbridled aggression; rather he has shown considerable maturity to anchor the chase. He has this tendency to accumulate dot balls, especially when the field spreads out, but he compensates it with boundaries. With Brendon Mccullum, whose 31-ball 49 against Rising Pune Supergiants indicated he's due for a whirlwind knock, they can become the most destructive opening pair in the league.
How Warner would wish to see his partner Shikhar Dhawan show such glimpses of form. The Indian opener has been enduring his most wretched patch of his career-16 runs in three outings--looking like a nervous