Yashasvi Jaiswal had just picked apart Bhuvneshwar Kumar, collecting 19 runs, 18 of those in boundaries, in the sixth over and taking Rajasthan Royals (RR) to 51 for one in its pursuit of 176 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the second qualifier at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.
With Sanju Samson at the other end and the spin-overs around the corner, the proceedings were only going to get easier. Or they were supposed to, at least.
Leading into the qualifier, SRH spinners had the worst record among the 10 teams in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.
Sunrisers’ tweakers had 13 wickets in 15 matches at an economy of 11.20 and an average of 54.00. This was largely owing to the injury to Wanindu Hasaranga.
To put into perspective how suboptimal SRH’s slower bowlers had been – spinners across all teams had 225 wickets in IPL 2024 at an average of 34.36 and an economy of 8.74.
To make matters worse in the do-or-die contest, a middle-order implosion meant SRH had to slot in Shahbaz Ahmed as Impact Player as batting reinforcement. This meant compromising on Mayank Markande, the lone full-time spinner in the 16-member squad for the game.
Shahbaz Ahmed celebrates with teamates after taking wicket of RR’s Ravichandran Ashwin in the second IPL qualifier. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam / The Hindu
What transpired in the first innings would have only added to Pat Cummins’ worry.
Rajasthan’s spin duo of R. Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal came clutch throughout the tournament, particularly effective in strangulating the runs in the middle overs while also chipping in with breakthroughs.
SRH’s spin stats do not hold a candle to those of RR’s – 29 wickets in 15 games at under 35 and an economy below nine per over. But even the Rajasthan pair went wicketless on the night and gave away 77 runs in eight overs.
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For Sunrisers, the potential options were Shahbaz, who had 21 overs under his belt till the qualifier, Abhishek Sharma, who had bowled just three overs in 14 games, and the part-time off-spin of Aiden Markram and Abdul Samad.
Both Abhishek and Shahbaz had economy rates north of nine runs per over with a combined wickets tally of four.
The modern-day T20 convention, driven by stats and number-crunching, one which takes economy rates and bowling averages as the be-all and end-all, stacked the odds against Sunrisers on Friday.
However, riding on instinct and simply trusting whatever resources he had, Cummins tore up the convention, flipped the odds in their favour, and turned the contest on its head. All in the space of 35 deliveries.
Abhishek and Shahbaz returned figures of 2/24 and 3/23, respectively, as Rajasthan plunged from 65 for one to 92 for six. Cummins played his cards on the simple matchup pitting Rajasthan’s right-handed batters against his left-arm, off-spin pairing.
“I think he decided at the time where he felt, given the conditions, we could use Shahbaz. There were two right-handers in and he felt the unorthodox spinner would be a good option to work one end,” Simon Helmot, the assistant coach, said at the post-match press conference.
“And the Abhishek [Sharma] one, I haven’t asked Pat this but I dare say it may have been a gut feeling, and if that’s the case, what a wonderful decision it was because it certainly changed the complexion of the game.”
For the one left-hander, Shimron Hetmyer, that Rajasthan had in its ranks, Abhishek was sly enough to throw in an arm-ball to catch him off-guard and clip his off stump, thereby closing the door on Rajasthan and its title contention. The other leftie, Yashasvi Jaiswal, perhaps in trouble with cramps, handed his wicket with a heedless heave earlier in the innings.
Shahbaz celebrates the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal in the second IPL qualifier at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam / The Hindu
A paramount factor that worked in favour of Cummins’ team was the lack of dew. After the two playoffs in Ahmedabad, dew was expected to play a role in Chennai too. But in its absence, Shahbaz and Abhishek turned the ball off the surface to inflict further damage on Rajasthan. But again, even this was not merely luck going SRH’s way.
“We’ve had enough evidence here and it was a lot drier out there today. We know when there’s cloud, there’s been rain around, there’s less chance of dew. We were not concerned that we were batting first,” Helmot added.
Cummins’ effective use of his spinners served as a timely reminder that, at times, putting faith in players can pip the pre-served analysis, which modern T20 obsesses over.
Heading into the final, the spin attack, which was a chink in SRH’s armour of sorts, will have its tail up after the show of faith from its skipper.
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