GT vs LSG: Saha jus can’t help it, Bad boys turn good & Shami’s perfect set-up

Wriddhiman Saha succeeded in getting out. He had just nearly shovelled out a return catch to the bowler Mohsin Khan, who was in the midst of yet another impressive spell, but Khan collapsed while trying to turn back. The ball had popped behind him, not too far, but when he tried to turn on his follow-through he twisted his ankle and collapsed. Luckily, he wasn’t injured. It was a slower one that had foxed Saha, and he rolled his finger on the ball pretty late in the piece and that perhaps threw off Saha. Be as it may, Khan went for another slower one, next ball. Saha yet again tried to check his punch, but this time succeeded in spooning a dolly to mid-on. On a pitch, where the early signs seemed to suggest the ball is going to grip and hold, Lucknow Giants had started off well. Though their fielding hasn’t been good. Had KL Rahul picked a tap from Shubman Gill at covers, he could have run Gill out, and the debutant Karan Sharma was also slow to get moving forward at third man and spilled a catch of Gill.

Bad boys turn good

Life seems to have come full circle for Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul. Just a few years ago, their careers had hit a roadblock due to some off-colour remarks – deemed offensive and sexist – on a television chat show. The duo was suspended for a while with some quarters of the cricket board – the Committee of Administrators was in charge then – wanting sterner punishment.

However, Rahul and Hardik seem to have learnt their lessons, put their heads down and let their cricket do the talking, to the extent that they are now captains of the two new IPL franchises that find themselves – against conventional wisdom – on top of the points table entering the business end of the league phase. Rahul has even had a taste of leading India in a Test and a full ODI series in South Africa. And though his performance as captain wasn’t much to write home about, the decision-makers in the board as well as the Lucknow Super Giants franchise may have seen something in him to warrant a longer-term investment. Hardik had had virtually no senior-level captaincy experience before being handed the reins of Gujarat Titans, but has impressed in leading from the front.

Will @LucknowIPL book their spot for the #TATAIPL Playoffs today or will it be the @gujarat_titans ?#LSGvGT pic.twitter.com/AnEqMmWkVK

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 10, 2022

Both are examples to suggest that it doesn’t take long for the tide to turn, and short public memory will soon forget off-the-field misdemeanours if the cricket is taken care of. Both their teams are virtually assured of their spots in the playoffs and if one of them lifts the IPL trophy in their franchise’s debut season, redemption will be complete.

Shami’s perfect set-up

The best part about Mohammad Shami’s dismissal of KL Rahul was that there was no surprise. Everyone was on it, including the broadcasters who showed him working over Rahul for a couple of overs. Across languages, the Hot Star commentators were on it too. Shami has been hot this IPL. Yet again, he showed why he has the most number of wickets in the Powerplay (13) when he took out Rahul. Ball after ball, he banged it around the 8 metre mark. Couple cut in, couple shaped away, the straighter ones hit the bat rather than the other way around. The pressure was cooking. Just two balls left in Shami’s third over; and Rahul must have wondered whether he should play it out or go for it. Shami pitched this ball a tad shorter, no major difference to the general 8m-cluster but it was shorter by a ball’s width, say. Rahul swivelled into his pull but this was Shami’s heavy ball. It thudded into Rahul’s bat and spooned right up for Wriddhiman Saha, the keeper, to take a dolly. Rahul kept shaking his head as he walked away, perhaps aghast that he had fallen for it, but no shame really for such has been Shami’s bowling this season.

That’s that from Match 57.@gujarat_titans win by 62 runs and become the first team to qualify for #TATAIPL 2022 Playoffs.

Scorecard – https://t.co/45Tbqyj6pV #LSGvGT #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/PgsuxfLKye

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 10, 2022

Hoodannit! The back-foot punch

Deepak Hooda plays this unusual back-foot punch wherein he rides the bounce on shortish deliveries, arches further inside the line and slams the ball flat in the air through point or backward point. He doesn’t even need width, and sometimes has both feet airborne when bat meets ball. Usually batsmen tend to go in front of square, even if only slightly, when playing the back-foot punch. Ajinkya Rahane does that, so does Aiden Markram, a predominant back-foot batsman.
Some teams have tried to prevent Hooda from playing that stroke this IPL with a short point on the square, about halfway in from the regulation point position. Delhi Capitals did that, and successfully shut off that route, but Hooda was good enough to force another scoring zone through extra cover in that game.

Gujarat Titans did not have the close fielder in place when Alzarri Joseph came on just after the powerplay. On a Pune pitch where most found it hard to time the ball, Hooda rose even as Joseph’s first delivery reared up outside off, and punched his square-hit horizontal for a much-needed boundary for Lucknow Super Giants.