Since then, SRH has been in death bowling mode due to the strip’s history of bowlers’ slaughter. Cummins bowled three more overs, either going pace off into the pitch with nothing in between or going pace on and attacking the blockhole.
Examining the actions of bowlers on a day when 245 was easily defeated with eight wickets and nine balls remaining may seem strange. On a day where the scoring rate was 12.77 for both innings, the trio of Harshal Patel, Ehsan Malinga, and Pat Cummins combined for 12 overs for figures of 6/127 at 10.58/over, excluding Mohammed Shami, who had a lacklustre day and ended up giving up 75 runs.
Stunted by Lockie Ferguson’s premature injury, the visiting seamers gave up 145 runs at a rate of 12.42/over in 11.4 overs for a single wicket, well after the result was almost decided.
The game took place on the ‘notorious’ pitch #2, a strip where a target of 160+ was shot down in less than ten overs and totals of 277 and 286 were recorded. Captain Cummins went for a 108 kph blast into the wicket to end the over as Punjab’s openers sped off to a fast start of 26 runs off the first 11 balls.
Harshal made his IPL debut since the beginning of 2019 when he was brought in as early as the fourth over and bowled two overs up front in the Powerplay. In his first period, he went pace off for all but two deliveries and took the prize wicket of Priyansh Arya, who was in form. This was only his second IPL Powerplay wicket since 2022; the first came in the same match last season.
With three of those wickets coming off off-pace deliveries and another off one that tailed in 1.07 degrees with the old ball, Harshal finished the day with 4/42. On his debut, Malinga dug on into the middle of the wicket off pace and took out Prabhsimran Singh in his opening over. Later, he used his slingy movement to cause the older ball to reverse considerably, and with a 2.46-degree swing, he pinned Nehal Wadhera in front.
Marcus Stoinis hit Shami for four sixes off the last four balls of the innings, but Shami missed his yorkers and bowled speed on-length deliveries in his final over.
The tempo was slowed down by Punjab seamers who bowled more traditional lengths early on and only twice in the first four overs, likely captivated by the score on the board. Because of his ability to bowl change-ups, Yash Thakur was selected as the Impact Sub before Vyshak Vijaykumar. During his 2.3-over period, he gave up 40 runs at a speed of just one pace off delivery.
Overall, Punjab seamers failed to take a wicket with their slower deliveries and gave up at 13.33/over, whereas SRH seamers took the pace off for 35% of their deliveries and returned with four wickets at 11.67/over.
Additionally, Punjab seamers preferred to dish out on lengths rather than bowl as many yorkers as SRH seamers did.
Although Abhishek Sharma was justifiably declared the Player of the Match, the three SRH seamers used their experience to keep the target within realistic bounds.
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