"Come, feel my heartbeat!" Arshdeep Singh responded to former New Zealand fast bowler Danny Morrison, the commentator, after his stump-shattering final-over exploits in Punjab Kings’ 13-run win over Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday night.
The PBKS left-arm pacer wanted to dispel any doubt that he felt pressure after being asked to defend 16 runs in the final over of a game that saw 415 runs scored.
“I am getting used to doing it now,” Arshdeep said. “If you have been practicing a lot, you don’t feel the pressure. And you are just backing yourself to execute the same things.”
That is, of course, easier said than done. Left to win a one-on-one battle against a set batter on a batting-friendly deck with the home crowd behind him and the match on the line, the best of bowlers can wilt.
Not Arshdeep. His death-over returns of 2-0-11-3 crashed the home team’s hopes. The tall bowler's death-over efforts this season (36 balls, 5 wickets, ER 8.50) are second only to Lucknow Super Kings fast bowler Mark Wood -- in terms of wickets (6). Only Rashid Khan (Gujarat Titans) bowls more economically (8.00).
EVERY BALL AN EVENT
Aiming for yorker length deliveries is the go-to plan. Except that the margin for error is coming down by the day in T20 cricket. Before Arshdeep came on to bowl the 18th over with 40 runs to defend, Suryakumar Yadav had been on the rampage. Arshdeep had seen his captain Sam Curran miss his lengths in the 17th over to be ramped and flicked for boundaries.
{{/usCountry}}Aiming for yorker length deliveries is the go-to plan. Except that the margin for error is coming down by the day in T20 cricket. Before Arshdeep came on to bowl the 18th over with 40 runs to defend, Suryakumar Yadav had been on the rampage. Arshdeep had seen his captain Sam Curran miss his lengths in the 17th over to be ramped and flicked for boundaries.
{{/usCountry}}Arshdeep himself didn’t start well and his around the wicket full toss was swatted away by Tim David for six over square leg.
But approaching death overs bowling in T20s must be broken down into an event every delivery. It’s a lesson he had in his India U-19 days from the current national team bowling coach Paras Mhambrey.
The Punjab pacer erased that misfired delivery from his memory bank, switched to over the wicket, and bowled a wide line yorker. Then, another good ball saw batters switching sides, after which he dismissed Yadav to a low full toss.
Fast forward to the final over and Arshdeep nailed his yorkers against Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera. The in-form Varma may have lost a split second trying to counter the dipping yorker with the hesitancy created by Arshdeep’s previous ball - a well-directed bouncer.
“I am trying not to be predictable. That’s why I am making an effort to bring in the bouncers,” he said. “Sometimes you get a hearing from the coaches for trying too much. But when you get the results, it feels good.”
The first of his two yorkers crashed into the stump cam and left a wreckage of a broken middle stump to give a delight that only a fast bowler can truly understand. “It was the best part of the day,” Arshdeep said.
“His hard work paid off today,” teammate Jitesh Sharma told reporters. “Arshdeep’s a very smart bowler and the best part is he’s always very eager to learn.”
MINDING THE NO BALL
That’s how Arshdeep worked on his no-ball problem, by successfully shortening his run-up before IPL. Arshdeep had bowled 22 front-foot no balls since 2022, five of them against Sri Lanka in a Pune T20I at the start of the year, to be reprimanded by captain Hardik Pandya.
It would have given him great joy that the tweaked run-up hasn’t resulted in loss of pace; the delivery that got his last wicket registered 142.9 kph on the speed gun.
By checking his no-ball issues, bowling yorkers with pin-point accuracy, the right dose of mix-ups allied to a cool temperament, Arshdeep’s 4-0-29-4 spell received applause from MI skipper Rohit Sharma.
The Mumbai Indians captain may have been at the receiving end, but the India captain in him will have reasons to smile.