IPL is a batsmen’s tournament, and whatever cricket experts may say, this is the reality, a pretty unfortunate reality. With shorter boundaries, flat decks, and dew, there is zero assistance for any bowlers. Imagine a boxing match where one opponent is without boxing gloves or headgear, the bowler’s condition is very similar to that.
A bowler is expected to take wickets, contain runs with a wet ball and shorter boundaries where even mishit goes for maximum. But, out of the blue, we do see some exceptional bowling performances, which makes them special and the contest exciting. The Rajasthan Royals player, Yuzvendra Chahal is one of them. A leggie who wasn’t even picked for World T20 and wasn’t even retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore gave the perfect answer to all his critics.
Yuzvendra Chahal was dropped from India’s ODI squad, as well as dropped from T20’s side. But he has worked hard behind the doors, and the results are extremely pleasing.
5-40 (in four overs), including a hattrick(First of this season), and the game-changing 16th over, wherein he picked the big wickets of Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, speaks volumes about the gritty leg-spinner. And to just highlight how difficult it was, Trent Boult was hit for two sixes by Umesh Yadav(A bowler who isn’t rated highly as a batsman). Yuzzy aka Yuzvendra Chahal single-handedly turned the game in Rajasthan’s favor with an amazing display of leg spin, bamboozled even the best with his googly and variations. Imagine taking 5 wickets out of 24 balls, on that pitch against a formidable Kolkata Knight Riders, on a pitch where 400+ runs were scored in only 40 overs. Yuzzy, lived the phrase,” when life gives you lemons make lemonade” on that night.
Yuzzy has been exceptional this season for Rajashtan Royals, barely giving any runs and picking wickets at ease. Such has been the dominance of this player in IPL Season 15, that even the veteran spinner like R Ashwin’s figures looks ordinary comparatively. Perhaps, this could have been his second hattrick of the season, had Karun Nair held on to the catch a few matches ago, and wouldn’t that have been stupendous?
Yuzzy may have been a brutal ex to RCB, but he is being very productive for this new franchise. Things are looking great for this well-balanced Rajashtan Royals side, and they would hope Yuzzy performs like this. He is the most vital cog in their wheel of IPL Season 15, and with Jos Butler around, we can expect them to reach play-offs at least.
The last two years haven’t been kind to Yuzzy. He was dropped from India’s ODI squad, as well as dropped from T20’s side. But he has worked hard behind the doors, and the results are extremely pleasing. Who wouldn’t want to see the wide grin again? We do hope, he is selected for T20 World Cup, as he can be a very handy option with bigger boundaries in Australia.
He is also a very popular figure on social media, and he was sportive enough to recreate the meme which had made him a social media meme super-star. His famous Chahal TV is fun and very humorous and should be on your watch lists.
