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In white ball cricket, especially in T20s, specialist batters don’t want to waste time getting in. The field is up, the ball is hard and the outfield is quick. However, teams might be prompted to have a rethink on their strategy of exposing their best batter to the new ball. Why? Ask Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul who had no chance against a full and swinging Mohammad Shami delivery that pitched on off-stump and drew his edge first ball of their innings. Or Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Kane Williamson who was sitting duck to a Prasidh Krishna delivery that pitched on a length he could commit neither forward nor back and took the edge off the shoulder of the bat. In both matches, one ball tilted the balance of the game.
Batting at the top is preferred when the pitches get slower and it gets difficult to put the spinners away. But both the Wankhede Stadium pitch and the Maharashtra Cricket Association track in Pune have looked fresh. After a belter played out on the centre pitch of DY Patil Stadium on Sunday, the side pitch used for Wednesday night’s game too has made pacers happy. “The wickets have been fresh. For the last couple of games, you could see that,” said Zaheer Khan, Mumbai Indians’ Director of Cricket Operations, on the eve of their second match, against Rajasthan Royals at DY Patil Stadium.
“There’s not been much of cricket played on these middle surfaces which are usually used for big games. That has been very evident in this season so far, that the wickets have been fresh and there’s been help for bowlers as well. The wickets are assisting fast bowlers up front so there will be some discussions around that and strategies made around that, for sure.”
Mumbai Indians’ two best batters, Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan, open the batting. But if the pitch is similar to the one in the last game at DY Patil ground, between KKR and RCB, then the team think-tank will have to consider whether they would like to expose both to the new ball. The Indian pacers are not complaining though. They are certainly looking forward to playing at Wankhede, DY and the MCA ground Pune. It somewhat compensates for the hiding meted out to them at the Brabourne Stadium, where fast bowlers are being reduced to bowling machines.
In the tournament opener at the Wankhede, Umesh Yadav inflicted early blows by prising out two top-order Chennai Super Kings wickets in the powerplay, including last season’s top-scorer Ruturaj Gaikwad. And then, in the second game, Gujarat Titans’ Mohammed Shami ran through LSG’s top-order with a three-wicket haul, dismissing Quinton de Kock and Manish Pandey apart from Rahul.
At the MCA Stadium, Krishna enjoyed bowling with the new ball, finishing with figures of 4-1-16-2. The India pacer took out Williamson and Rahul Tripathi in his first two overs to end SRH’s hopes in the powerplay overs.
Going into Wednesday evening’s game at the DY Patil, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s pace bowlers must have been sweating after failing to defend 205 in their opener against Punjab Kings. To their pleasant surprise, RCB were welcomed by a fresh pitch with a tinge of grass on it. They sure made the most of it to bounce back from the mauling in the first game. While most India pacers are getting the batters with lateral movement, RCB’s pacers used the hard lengths to good effect. Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj ran through the Kolkata Knight Rider’s top-order with the new ball, reducing them to 44 for three. Once the tone of the match was set, Harshal Patel came in the middle overs and bowled two successive wicket maidens. “I was following other matches and I felt that taking wickets with the new ball was important, because the bowlers are getting more help from the new ball. I bowled according to that plan and managed to get the wickets for my team. My strength is short bowling and I did that only. I have confidence on my strength,” said Deep, who finished with three wickets.
Defending KKR’s small total against RCB, Yadav continued with his impressive form with the new ball and gave KKR early breakthroughs with the wickets off opener Anuj Rawat and Virat Kohli. In the Pune game, even though SRH bowlers conceded 210, their Indian pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umar Malik bowled impressively. Kumar made the new ball talk, moving the ball sharply, and finished with tidy figures of 4-0-29-1. Malik was picked for runs but he also dismissed Jos Buttler and Devdutt Padikkal with pace and late movement. Williamson knew it was a start they couldn’t capitalise on. “We started beautifully with the ball, we had our opportunities. In all the games so far, there has been some swing and assistance with the new ball. You want to make some inroads, we looked very likely but unfortunately some fine margins in this game didn’t go our way.”
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