Shivam Dube’s free swing; Suyash saunters in from Goa and is everywhere all at once, & Ruturaj just can’t catch a break

Then, when eventually Karthik fell, Jadeja, who held his nerves to take a superb catch just a footstep away from the ropes, fell backwards on the perch in utter relief. Both said much about what the cricketing world thinks about Karthik. Ravi Shastri, the former coach, has already said he would definitely think about Karthik for the finishing role. It’s time the selectors, if they aren’t already that is, start thinking about the same. The race is on and Karthik is comfortably leading it at the moment.

The Jadeja catch celebration 👌👌#TATAIPL #CSKvRCB pic.twitter.com/u3zvE59I3k

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 12, 2022

Theekshana’s Unrelenting accuracy

Maheesh Theekshana in short: An off-spinner whose carrom balls turn more than the stock off-break. He has, in his oeuvre, a leg-break and googly too, or so goes the hype, but in his destruction of RCB, he primarily relied on just two variations. The stock off-break and the carrom ball. The off-break is delivered with the index finger and middle finger spread across wider than more conventional off-spinners. Hence, a lot of thumb, too, goes into the ball. As a result, he bargained both bounce and skid off the surface, even though he does not turn the ball lavishly. The extra bounce devoured Faf du Plessis into mistiming the ball to long-on. The skid accounted for Suyash Prabhudessai, who tried to slog him but ended up being hustled by the ball. To the left-handers, he employed more carrom balls—the thumb acting as a backrest, the forefinger as the axis and the middle-finger for flicking the ball in an anti-clockwise direction. The arm-speed is slower than his off-break staple, the ball is more tossed up and it turns more. The sharp turn back stunned both Shahbaz Ahmed and Anuj Rawat, bowled and leg before, respectively. He could have nabbed Glenn Maxwell with a delicious carrom ball, but the edge fell safely. But Theekshana’s bowling is not so much about his variations, which good batsmen would eventually decode, as his unrelenting accuracy and discipline.

Maheesh Theekshana Magical Spell 4/33 pic.twitter.com/itkZnYnFH4

— 🎰 (@sharukhMSD) April 12, 2022

Shivam’s free swing

Such is Shivam Dube’s long-handle free swing that even balls that seemingly hit the bottom of the bat can fly. As Wanindu Hasaranga and Shabahz Ahmed found out. It’s the pace, and especially the short ball, that seems to bother him. The other night Kris Srikkanth quipped on air in Tamil commentary, “Dube ku bouncer potta konjama Jagaa vanguvaan!” (Jagaa is a Chennai slang for moving away!). He has gotten out a few times to the bouncer and Cheeka’s tongue-in-cheek comment isn’t too far off the mark. Tonight though, with CSK needing a run acceleration and with spinners on tandem, he decided to free his arms. He was promoted ahead of Ambati Rayudu who had made No.4 his own for years now but since he hasn’t been in that great a touch, CSK decided to promote Dube. Even though he was making contact with only the toe-end of the bat, the ball still kept soaring away.

*BREAKING :*

*8.1 Million hotstar views, Highest viewed match of this season 💥*

*#Craze of CSK & RCB Match* 🔥@IamShivamDube u beauty ♥️
Did rcb are missing @HarshalPatel23 tonight ?#ipl #unacademyAsktheExperts pic.twitter.com/BsYDbWY8Z7

— Mashaal Pashteen (@MashaalPashteen) April 12, 2022

Ruturaj and changing seasons

So far this season Ruturaj Gaikwad, the highest run-getter last term, has endured a horror time. Five outings have yielded him 35 runs in five. But the 17 runs he scored against RCB—nearly matching the tally in the four previous outings—was the best he had looked this edition. There were flashes of the sparkling timing that had wowed the connoisseurs and that has been elusive since. The pull shot against Mohammed Siraj was regal. The ball was just marginally short, and it seemed like he was late to react. But when the ball reared up, he just swivelled and pulled the ball, fully air-borne and not making any attempt to roll the wrists over it so that he could keep the ball down. Followed a crisp cut through cover-point off Josh Hazlewood when he erred on the shorter side. But an uncharacteristically hideous hack off Hazlewood ball—more short of length than short—nipped a blossoming knock. He missed the ball completely and was adjudged lbw. He was distraught when he walked back, self-admonishing and grimacing. The failures have begun to weigh on him.

5 games and 5 failure for Ruturaj Gaikwad. It’s really sad to see this youngster like this. 💔

Well bowled Josh Hazlewood. pic.twitter.com/LxpyP2c5O1

— Akshat (@AkshatOM10) April 12, 2022

Suyash – Go, Goa, Going places

His social media posts are about setting suns, palm trees, Sunday football, yoga on beach and bright traditional Konkani dressing. Not surprising for a 24 year old from Goa. The last cricketer from the football-crazy state to make an IPL impact was the highly entertaining RR opener Swapnil Asnodkar. Now, keep an eye on another delightful cricketer from the land of feni drinkers. RCB’s Suyash S Prabhudessai is a classic bits and pieces cricketer. He can bowl, bat and when not doing either, fly around the field and stop impossible balls. Within half an hour of taking the field, he did a Yuvraj Singh at point. Moeen Ali steered the ball to square on the off-side and ran with the confidence of a batsman sure about the strength of his stroke and placement. Not today, he didn’t bargain for a cheetah on the square. Prabhudessai lunged, dived, grabbed the ball and, most importantly, got and threw at the stumps. Dinesh Karthik broke the stumps in one swift movement, his effort made easy by the precision of the stump-high throw. The boy from Goa – whose electric strides around the ground shouting out the fact that he isn’t a one-sport player – spread his hands wide as if to flaunt his wing span and tell the batsmen around the world they better be sure about taking a run when he was around. Later in the evening, he stopped a certain four and took an impossible running-in from the fence catch. Prabhudessai on the field is a sight.

Top class fielding on his debut by Suyash Prabhudessai. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/IJ7FnDNZGh

— Akshat (@AkshatOM10) April 12, 2022

Uthappa Flip – six over third man to ball down leg side

Some comedy and some nostalgia came off successive balls from Uthappa. The first ball from Mohammad Siraj was back of length down the leg side and Uthappa went for his pick-up swat over backward square-leg. Instead, the ball flew off the extremely fat edge and over third man for a six! A six over third man to a ball down leg side. Even as one recovered from the comic relief, Uthappa rolled back the years next ball. Just as he would do more than a decade back, mimicking his hero Sachin Tendulkar, he charged down the track and crash-landed Siraj over the sight screen. Boom! One of the sweetest timers going around, at times Uthappa has been guilty of playing the check-drives and getting caught at the boundary. Not this innings, though. He went through with each and every big shot of his, the bat completing the full swing in the follow-through and no wonder the white ball kept disappearing.

Robin Uthappa departs after an excellent knock of 88 off 50 deliveries.

Live – https://t.co/KYzdkMrSTA #CSKvRCB #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/rnCffTiyky

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 12, 2022

Uthappa – the Quick Gun Chingum, bubblegums Maxwell

“The chewing gum”, to Viv Richards, “was a like a little brother.” The insouciant West Indies great was seldom spotted without his jaws giving the gum an almighty workout, so much so that he once said “that I am disappointed that no one approached me for advertising. I did the chewing gum a world of good.” He even refused to wear a mouthpiece as it interfered with his favourite habit. Robin Uthappa is no Richards, but exudes a chewing-gummed menace, especially when he combats off-spinners. A brand of bowling that Richards too relished. Poor Glenn Maxwell, playing his first IPL game, and looking outrageously rusty. So Uthappa just tore into him. A horrific short ball was smacked into eternity, a follow-up full-ball was thwacked into the deep midwicket stands, before replicating the same two balls later. And every time he struck a six, he would take a little walk down to the middle, thud the pitch a couple of times, and gives that gum an almighty thump.

Akash Deep’s horror over before it was over

Once Shivam Dube and Robin Uthappa began to shred him apart, Akash Deep turned into a mess of nerves. It was one of those mind-going-blank moments, when nothing would have registered in his mind. After Dube slaughtered eighteen runs off his first four balls, he just froze. The fifth ball was so wide that it almost went to leg-slip had a fielder been stationed there. The re-ball was equally tripe, but Dube somehow couldn’t impart a decent connection to the leg-side short ball. Enter Uthappa. The next ball landed outside the pitch—worse than that Steve Harmison first ball at Gabba. The next was marginally better—it almost hugged the tramline. The hat-trick wide ball was an improvement but still an easy wide. An army of advisors swarmed him and offered counsel, he just kept nodding his head. And it seemed to benefit him—this one was a legal ball, though a full toss. A wave of relief flickered across his face. An ordeal was finally over.

Bravo and the catch that dripped like Tirunelveli halwa

“I don’t have to practice that celebration. It’s pretty simple stuff. Comes out naturally,” Dwayne Bravo had told this newspaper a few days back about his wicket-celebration where he gestures ‘one’ with his index finger and sways from side to side. It’s for his new single ‘One’. “My music is happy music,” he had said. Nothing happy about his reaction when Mukesh Chaudhary dropped a sitter at deep midwicket to reprieve Suyash Prabhudessai. Bravo’s index finger was up and he had begun to sway it in anticipation but Chaudhary clanged the catch. Anguish settled in on his face, he winced and turned and looked towards his captain MS Dhoni, who turned his head away from his friend and looked at the off side. On air, Ian Bishop remarked that Chaudhary’s technique of catching was “crocodile hands” as his hands were cupped awkwardly and snapped at the ball. Meanwhile, when the replays came on, on Tamil commentary, the former India opener, cracked up, “Tirunelveli halwa mature catch utterey!”

The catch was like the famous halwa from Tirunelveli, the wheat halwa that drips off ghee, and slips through hands. It’s also called as ‘Irutu kadai halwa’ (dark shop halwa, a 1900 establishment in Tirunelveli that used to sell it’s delectable product only in twilight). And on a floodlit night, Chaudhary let the halwa slip.
A few overs later, Chaudhary would drop another halwa this time a skier from Dinesh Kartik. Ambati Rayudu would run across to console him, but the poor man looked really upset. Someone give him some tirunelveli halwa please.

No ball as Rayudu outside the ring on the onside#CSKvRCB #RCBvCSK pic.twitter.com/4JEBgrxsAF

— Pushkar Pushp (@ppushp7) April 12, 2022

Go, says Pandit. Oh! says Dhoni

There was a brief confusion over a no-ball call for three fielders behind square on the leg side as MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu, and Ravindra Jadeja charged across to the umpires, the two Nitins, Menon and Pandit. It was Pandit, who was the square-leg umpire, who signalled the no ball. The CSK triumvirate seemed irate as they marched up to him. The umpire calmly pointed out that there were three men behind the line- the rule marks that arc from the batting crease and not from the stumps. The man at deep square-leg wasn’t behind the stumps but behind the crease lines alright. The light dawned on Dhoni and co. and the former India captain put up his hand in acceptance as he walked away.