Despite the Indian Premier League is a batting-friendly form of sport, bowlers have always played an extremely crucial role in the entire affair. Things get much more complicated for the bowlers as their teams make it to the knock out stages of Indian Premier League as the pressure and expectations manifold themselves exponentially.
Players who still manage to grapple with their frayed nerves and dish out a gem of performance are the ones who deserve all the plaudits in the world. Once again, bowlers rising against the tide of batsmen in the big games are a new form of rebellion that can be best summed up with the words, “You shall not pass!”
We will look at the five most economical spells in the knockout stages of the Indian Premier League that created the ripples for all the right reasons.
- Umesh Yadav: 4-0-13-3 versus KXIP in IPL 2014, Qualifier 1
Batting first Kolkata Knightriders managed to post 165Riding on Uthappa’s blitzkrieg at the beginning of the innings. It was Piyush Chawla who managed to pull off a late storm to help KKR reach a defendable total.
However, given Punjab’s batting depth and with Sehwag and Maxwell in their squad, the total seemed like a big challenge unless someone stepped up. Cometh the hour, cometh the man and KKR’s man was Umesh Yadav. He stung in his very first ball as he scalped Sehwag with absolute beauty as he cracked an absolute tracer bullet at the former Indian opener. He followed the opener up with a gem of an over as all that Punjab could manage was 3 off his first over.
Yadav came back in the 8th over and started with a couple of beauties that created the pressure on Maxwell. In his restlessness to score against the big man, Maxwell left his leg stump open and Yadav angled it right on the middle and the leg stump that caught the Australian’s bat and KKR sniffed blood for the first time.
At the end of 2 overs, Yadav has conceded 4 runs and managed to register 2 wickets. Wriddhimaan Saha and David Miller played out his next over very carefully extracting 8 runs off it. The final over from Yadav was kept for the last over.
With 30 needed from 6 balls, Umesh bowled a length ball on the off-stump to Bailey and the Australian big-hitter miscued his shot, thereby holing out to Manish Pandey. Yadav produced another peachy over as he finished his spell for 4-0-13-3.
2. Karn Sharma: 4-0-16-4 versus KKR in IPL 2017 Qualifier 2
This was a grand performance from a much-underrated spinner of Indian Premier League. Karn Sharma always produced gems under the wraps. This was just another masterclass of his.
In a must-win match for both, KKR was being put in to bat and after an early blow by Jasprit Bumrah, Sharma instigated the avalanche that washed away the KKR batsmen. He bamboozled Narine with an absolute pearler, as Sharma’s googly was missed by the West Indian pinch-hitter and Parthiv did the rest behind the stumps.
The next victim to fall prey to some outrageous spin from Sharma was India’s World Cup-winning vice-captain, Gautam Gambhir. Turning the ball in the last moment, Sharma released a slower delivery which was over-pitched. Tempted by the gift, Gambhir played it against the turn and ended up holing out to Hardik Pandya.
Sharma struck again in the very next ball as Colin De Grandhomme failed to pick his googly and was caught on his pads that blocked the leg stumps, compelling Nigel Llong to raise his finger immediately.
At the end of 2 overs, Sharma’s figures were beyond baffling as it read 2-0-8-2.
Ishan Jaggi was the man who tried t stabilize the innings and decided to deal with Sharma in the safest way possible, thereby playing out the spinner without any risk. As the bowler returned in the 15th over, Sharma once again struck gold with Jaggi trying to hammer it down over the long-on, ending up giving a safe catch to the big arms of Johnson.
In a pressure match, Sharma produced figures of 4-0-16-4, which played an industrious role in derailing KKR’s star-studded batting line up.
- Dough Bollinger: 4-1-13-4 versus Deccan Chargers in IPL 2010 semi-final
Fighting until the dying end, Chennai managed to post a modest total of 142 for 7 batting first. They needed someone to produce a magical spell if they had to defend such a minuscule total.
As Gilchrist and Gibbs bought themselves time to prepare for the kill, Bollinger started off with a maiden over. The second over for the Australian was another decent enterprise as he only conceded 7 runs from it. He brought the bunny out of his hat as the very first ball of the third over struck gem for the Aussie pacer as a slower delivery was misread by Gilly and he played it straight into the arms of Anirudha.
Bollinger struck again in the same over as his next victim was Tirumalasetti Suman who was caught by Raina in stunning fashion, making life hell for the Chargers.
The fast bowler came back again in the 18th over as he struck twice removing Harris who was threatening a comeback for the Chargers and Sumanth who tried to come out of his defensive shell. By the time he was done with his opposition hi magical numbers read 4-1-13-4.
4. Ravichandran Ashwin: 4-0-16-3 versus RCB in IPL 2011 final
With 205 to defend, Challengers had a Gayle up in their ranks and the West Indian southpaw could have taken the game away from Chennai in the blink of an eye. The Indian offie startled everyone with a brilliant skitter that Gayle couldn’t comprehend and ended up nicking to Dhoni.
In the following over, Ashwin bested Mayank Agarwal with another screamer as the young batsman was left bamboozled by the sudden movement of the ball.
The final victim that fell prey to Ashwin was the Bangalore skipper, Daniel Vettori who found it hard to negotiate the spin and ended up losing his wicket in a very short span of time. The victory that needed something special came through the arms of Ravichandran Ashwin.
5. Anil Kumble: 4-0-16-4 versus Deccan Chargers in IPL 2009 Final
The Indian legend put his spinning wizardry to the test when he rattled the Chargers with some phenomenal bowling in the final. Picking up Gilchrist in the very first over, he bloated in confidence.
His next victims were Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma and Venugopal Rao as the Chargers were reduced to a mere 143 at the end of their 20 overs. Kumble’s brilliant figures read 4-0-16-4 and it seemed to be a cakewalk for the Challengers as the target seemed well in reach.
Unfortunately, Pragyan Ojha, Harmeet Singh and Andrew Symonds ripped through the Bangalore batting line up and stole an incredible victory that saw them lifting the solitary championship.
