Calm and composed, Arshdeep Singh the death-over specialist

“Dot ball in the last overs is equivalent to gold. If you get a wicket there, it’s a bonus,” added Arshdeep who picked up four on the night. With that in mind, he was tasked with defending 16 runs on a wicket that had already produced 413 runs off 39 overs on the evening.

Off his first delivery, the 24-year-old had nabbed Ishan Kishan. In his previous over (18th of the innings), he’d sent back the meaty Suryakumar Yadav, who he believes would have finished the game an over ago had he not dismissed him. In his last act at the Wankhede, Arshdeep was up against a proven finisher in Tim David, who’d just lodged a 114m six off Nathan Ellis and MI’s top scorer of the season, Tilak Verma.

With David on strike, Arshdeep scuttled from over the wicket to the right hander. The line was wide outside off, and despite taking the guard on the off, the Aussie could only get the low full-toss as far as the man at deep extra cover. A single negotiated. 15 needed off five balls and here was the interesting match-up, left-armer to left hander.

There was no one near the fine leg boundary. And with Arshdeep retaining over the wicket angle, a lap/scoop seemed irresistible. It was a gamble. Arshdeep knew it. And so, as he watched Verma position himself to go down on one knee on the off, the Punjab bowler went for a bumper that whizzed past the southpaw’s blade and was collected behind by the keeper. A dot ball. Remember, as good as ‘gold’ at this stage. A wicket would come in search of another.

With 15 required off the last four, there were no prizes for guessing the batter would go down the ground. A full delivery was anticipated following the short one. Doctor Strange could’ve viewed a grand total of 14,000,605 possible outcomes to it and in only one of them Arshdeep’s delivery would’ve been an inch perfect yorker. And inch perfect it was. Full and straight, snapping the middle stump into two halves. An adrenaline rush ran within Sam Curran as the Punjab captain pumped his fist at the boundary. Arshdeep was calm though, with his arms wide sprung. “You should come and stand next to me (in the final over), the heartbeat wasn’t even close to 120,” he’d tell Danny Morrison afterwards.

A new batter on strike, a new stump behind him. Action replay followed. A straight yorker, snapping the middle stump into two pieces. “Mumbai Police, we’d like to report a crime,” tweeted Punjab Kings. The brutality of it reminded former India left-arm quick Zaheer Khan of another India and MI quick. “It was superb to just see a fast bowler running in and nailing those yorkers. On this ground, I’ve seen Bumrah do that a lot. Win close games.”

The hat-trick didn’t come but just a single did off the last two. An entirety of two runs in that last over that closed a run fest, and no extras conceded. At the start of the year, Arshdeep had conceded a hat-trick of front foot no balls during a T20I against Sri Lanka. His tally in a short career was over a dozen. “Ahead of the IPL, I changed my run-up and it helped me with avoiding no-balls.”

As was evident from his two deliveries to Verma, variety was of as much significance to the left-armer as precision. “I’ve been trying at my end to use the bouncer at least once in the each of the four overs. On these wickets, the batters set up very quickly. And if you don’t use your bouncer, yorkers and slower ones, then you can go for runs. Don’t want to get too predictable. Usi wajah se gaaliyan bhi bahot jayada pdti hai coaches se ki bahot jyada try kr rha hai. But when you get the results, they’re happy.”

With four wins in seven games, Punjab sit in the top half of the points table. There’s a calmness around the side, which Arshdeep Singh takes credit for. Not just as the leading wicket taker of the competition. “The team environment is pretty light. I can give myself a little credit. I play good music.” The certified DJ of the side? “Yes, a lot of them don’t like it, but I am.” He sure gets them grooving on field.