Only a mother can feel the helplessness of her child and when Yash Dayal was on his haunches exactly 405 evenings back at the Motera.
Radha Dayal had fallen ill watching his son pick up the pieces of his fledgling career. It lay in tatters after long-time Uttar Pradesh teammate Rinku Singh clobbered him for five successive sixes, walking into the collective consciousness of a nation.
It could have well been the end of the road for Dayal but those who pay little heed to the ruthlessly fickle social media stood by their man.
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He was earlier handed a BCCI pacer’s contract and on Saturday, he defended 17 runs against two of the Indian Premier League’s greatest finishers, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja.
“God’s plan baby,” Rinku wrote on his Instagram page and who better than him to aptly sum it up.
But after that eventful 20th over, the first thing that Dayal did was to check on his mother Radha.
“Kaisa feel kar rahi ho (how are you feeling mom?),” were Dayal’s first words to his mother on a video call.
A beaming father Chandrapal said that the son told his mom that he was confident of stopping the legendary Dhoni in his tracks.
“I was confident of pulling it off after the first-ball six and was calm and composed,” Dayal said about the last over.
Since the 27-run win, the phones haven’t stopped ringing at the Dayal household.
Chandrapal himself played a lot of club cricket and was a former medium-pacer, who retired from the Accountant General’s office in Allahabad in 2019.
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Throughout the difficult phase following Rinku’s six-hitting spree on that eventful night of April 9 in Ahmedabad, it was Dayal’s 64-year-old father who stood by him as his only source of support.
“Woh darawana sapna firse aa raha tha jab Dhoni ne pehli ball pe sixer mara (That terrifying dream of last season started to haunt me when Dhoni hit that 110-m six off the first ball),” he recollected the dramatic final over.
“But deep inside, I knew something good will happen this time. It’s all the result of his hardwork, full credit to him. God has been kind.”
Chandrapal has been trying to attend to each and every phone call from relatives, friends and well-wishers since the morning.
“I haven’t had the time to eat with the inundation of calls since morning,” Chandrapal told PTI from Allahabad.
“I haven’t even had a chance to talk to Yash myself - I’ve only heard my wife and daughter speak to him from the sidelines.”
A lot has changed for Dayal since last season, when he not only lost a spot in the playing XI, but Gujarat Titans lost faith in him and released him ahead of the auction in December.
He also fell ill after returning from last year’s IPL when his father became his source of motivation.
“I kept giving him examples of Stuart Broad and how great a bowler he had become since being hit for six sixes by Yuvraj Singh in the 2007 T20 World Cup,” Chandrapal said.
“I never had to tell him anything on cricket, like if his hand movement or foot landing is going wrong. He is a God’s gifted talent, a complete fast bowler. I ensured that he remained mentally strong by shutting all the noise around him, and never let him go into depression or give up after that setback.”
The duo would together visit the Madan Mohan Malviya Stadium in Civil Lines daily in the morning as Dayal’s father would watch him train for hours in dual shifts (morning and evening) while his elder sister Shuchi, who is a dietician, took care of his diet.
From curbing his craving for sweets to giving up ice cream and his favourite mutton keema and biryani dishes, Dayal worked hard on his fitness and mental strength in his redemption journey.
“Yash has not missed a single domestic match, which has worked in favour of him. The result you all can see in his fitness and control. RCB has also shown full faith in him and played him consistently to keep his confidence going,” said Chandrapal.
“He can become an all-format player. These are not my predictions. Even the great Zaheer Khan wanted to see him in the Indian team for the T20 World Cup. Hope this is just the beginning for him,” he added.
Handy batter: coach
Dayal’s childhood coach Amit Pal, who is now posted in Kanpur as deputy sports officer in the UP government, says the 26-year-old is also a handy lower-order batter.
“He has played some meaty innings for UP and can develop into a good batter if given opportunities. He has shown tremendous resilience. To stop a player like Dhoni, Jadeja from scoring those runs requires a lot of mental toughness. He has worked hard to reach here,” he said.
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