The short-pitched deliveries and those banged into the wicket with pace off were Punjab Kings' go-to balls against Mumbai Indians. On Tuesday in their big IPL final, it is what brought them the wickets and against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, they went about replicating the same tactic from the word go. From the moment Arshdeep Singh tested Phil Salt with short deliveries it was evident what Punjab had on their mind and up their sleeve. With the boundaries on either side of the pitch around 64 metres, the Punjab Kings bowling unit knew clearing the ropes won’t be easy for batsmen if there was no pace on it. And it is what Kyle Jamieson, Azmatullah Omarzai and Vyshak Vijayakumar did in the middle-overs to stop RCB from running away to a big total. That particular delivery might have fetched only, albeit the big wicket of Virat Kohli, but those slowy-shorties did the damage by setting up the wickets, by inciting a bit of anarchy in minds hell bent on slamming away. Ricky Ponting wasn't the first Aussie to deploy the wonder tactic. In fact India had pretty painful memories of this tactic - on the same ground at Ahmedabad. Back on that doomed day of 19 November, 2023. During that World Cup final imprinted on Indian batting memories, Pat Cummins & Co had famously executed it against the hosts to apply brakes on their scoring and inject a dull lull into the score when batting first. Shreyas Iyer back then had been on the receiving end of the stifling noose, though Kohli had been felled similarly. Michael Clarke even chuckled about it in the comms. Punjab’s Australian think-tank which includes Ricky Ponting, James Hopes and Brad Haddin seemed to have riffed off that playbook and employed the same pace-off-bang-downs, though this time it was Jamieson entrusted to mix things up and deliver the wickets.
