Anticipation provides so much to enhance the thrill of live sports, especially as it builds up to a crescendo. Broadcasters spice it up by building up the target to get from the number of balls, build up tension with over-by-over and segment-wise comparisons – across Powerplay, middle-overs and slog overs – and add estimated totals and impact index— all numbers to grab eyeballs and get the adrenaline of the fan pumping. Reality though is different. Every now and then it has the habit of throwing data, matchups and other modules out.
Sunday night in IPL provides the latest example. Rajasthan Royals were throwing up their hands in celebration when they were halted, a four-run almost win turning into a bonus delivery and a last-ball four-wicket win for Sunrisers Hyderabad at Jaipur.
RR pacer Sandeep Sharma, exerting a bit more to nail a wide yorker and prevent a four that would have allowed SRH to tie and force a Super Over, did get the batter to hole out but had overstepped. Abdul Samad, caught off that non-ball, nails the free hit for six, starting off celebrations in the other dug out.
Such is the nature of T20 that you can’t pause or introspect. “It’s a no-ball, you have to bowl it again, as simple as that. You don't think about it too much,” RR skipper Sanju Samson said after the match.
“And I think Sandeep knows what to do. But definitely in the mindset there might be a small change for a few seconds when you think the job is done. Almost everyone was celebrating.”
{{/usCountry}}“And I think Sandeep knows what to do. But definitely in the mindset there might be a small change for a few seconds when you think the job is done. Almost everyone was celebrating.”
{{/usCountry}}If Samad was standing and delivering against one ball, he was missing and running off the next. But as long as there were deliveries left, he wasn’t giving up hope. "I was just waiting for the ball to get in the slot. Eventually and luckily I got a no-ball as well. I got lucky today,” he said.
Even without the last-ball turnaround, it was a stunning late turnaround by SRH, who needed 41 in 12 balls. Only three teams in men's T20s have successfully chased more runs in the last two overs — 43 by Chennai Super Kings against Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2012, Sussex versus Gloucestershire in the 2015 T20 Blast and Kolkata Knight Riders against Gujarat Titans earlier this season.
Samad hit the winning six but it was Glenn Phillips who conjured up the heist, smashing 25 off seven balls. It led to the least involvement for an IPL cricketer who won Man-of-the-Match. Samad and Phillips belted 42 runs off 14 balls. If the last over belonged to Samad, Phillips set up the win in the 19th over, clubbing Kuldip Yadav for 6, 6, 6, 4 — 22 off four balls — before he was out the next ball.
Until then, the highlight had been RR opener Jos Buttler (95) smoothly shifting gears, scoring 75 off 39 balls after crawling to 20 off 20 balls — and Samson blasting sixes to raise prospects of a one-sided contest.
The narrative too played that up. After Powerplay, Sunrisers were 52/1, behind Royals’ 61/0. Sunrisers took 69 balls to reach 100. RR took only 58 balls. Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi and Heinrich Klaasen tried hard to keep the chase alive, but no one could have anticipated SRH catching up.
But T20 has changed. Well begun is no longer half done. This season, seven of the 10 best strike rates in an innings have come from middle- and lower-middle order batters. It’s a specialised job where one doesn’t get time to settle (Phillips and Samad scored their first six off the third ball they faced). But maximum returns are expected. “I think you got to train it, and put yourself under pressure,” said SRH skipper Aiden Markram – he is also the SA T20 captain – after the win. “You are playing high risk cricket, so that's where technique comes in.”
SRH’s heist on Sunday saw a match where 431 runs were scored, the strike rates of Buttler and Samson (161 and 173) pale in comparison to those of Phillips (357) and Samad (243).Abhishek Sharma (55 – 34b) was the only SRH batter to hit fifty.
Not every day do you get this kind of return. And the IPL spectacle in Ahmedabad highlighted yet again the unpredictability of this format.