RCB pacer Harshal Patel tweaks thinking, ties batsmen in knots | Cricket - Hindustan Times
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RCB pacer Harshal Patel tweaks thinking, ties batsmen in knots

By, Mumbai
Sep 27, 2021 07:43 PM IST

The pacer claimed his first career hat-trick as Virat Kohli’s team defeated champions Mumbai Indians in a crucial match at Dubai in 2021 IPL.

Doing it once may be a fluke, to do it twice in two games against the most successful side in the tournament takes some doing. Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer Harshal Patel had stunned the formidable Mumbai Indians lower-order in the 2021 IPL opener with a five-wicket haul, in April, at Chennai. On Sunday, five months later, he repeated his masterclass of bowling at the death with a four-wicket haul. 

RCB's Harshal Patel celebrates his hat-trick. (IPL/Twitter) PREMIUM
RCB's Harshal Patel celebrates his hat-trick. (IPL/Twitter)

Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya, the two most dangerous power-hitters in the game, were again victims of Patel’s trickery with change of pace. What stood out in both games was that Patel’s strikes came after MI were off to strong starts. In the first-leg, MI crashed from 135/3 in 15.5 overs to 159/9 in 20 overs.   

At the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday, the blue brigade was 106/5 after 16 overs chasing RCB’s 165. Patel took out Hardik Pandya, Pollard and Rahul Chahar in his next three balls to claim his first hat-trick. He returned to bowl Adam Milne, conceding just 17 runs from his 3.1 overs as MI were 111 all out. 

Living in the shadows of the internationals since making his IPL debut in 2012, the 30-year-old has turned the spotlight on himself this season as skipper Virat Kohli’s go-to bowler for the crunch overs. With 23 scalps in 10 matches averaging 13.56, Patel is the leading wicket-taker in 2021 IPL.     

In a tough year due to the pandemic, Patel had also picked up an ankle injury ahead of Haryana’s first Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament in 2020. It led him to miss the entire season. “He twisted his ankle during a fielding session ahead of Haryana’s first game, and couldn’t take part in any of the matches last season. Anirudh Choudhary, former BCCI treasurer and Haryana Cricket Association chief, had said in April.   

The injury hurt all the more painful because the Haryana captain had just hit his peak as a pacer. In the 2019-20 season, Patel took 52 wickets in nine first-class games at an average of 14.48 (S/R 27.1). In the national T20 championship, in 12 games he picked 19 wickets at an average of 15.94 and an economy of 7.04. While his teammates and opponents in domestic cricket knew his effectiveness, in IPL he was an unknown commodity until that MI game in Chennai. In 2020 IPL for Delhi Capitals, his role was restricted to five games and he was traded to RCB. 

“When we got together for the first camp there was a clear instruction that I will be bowling at least two overs at the death. That gave me a lot of clarity and confidence to work on my skills and develop plans against the batters,” Patel had said after that Chennai spell in April. 

MINDSET TWEAK

The degree of difficulty in landing a delivery like a slower yorker is similar to scoring off a free-kick in football. Everything has to be in sync to land it accurately. The ball to get rid of Pollard was the perfect execution of a plan chalked out beforehand. Asked to describe it on Sunday, Patel termed it very satisfactory. “It was a bluff because we had planned in the meeting that a batsman like Pollard can be set up by bowling wide, and then you can bowl a yorker at the heel which he might miss. At that time, I felt I was bowling the slower ball well and square-leg was up. So, rather than bowling a fast-paced yorker at his heel, I tried to bowl a bit slow and that was well bowled and he missed it,” he told the media.   

Patel fools the batters because there is no perceivable change in arm speed. He has mastered the art of releasing the slower ball well disguised and getting the ball to dip. In an interview to this newspaper after the first leg of this IPL, Patel had revealed how he got his yorkers right through a mindset tweak.   

“I think, this is my opinion, whoever is playing IPL for a little bit of time have pretty much the same skill level. The difference is always (about) whether you can execute those skills in pressure situations where you can be in a position where you are humiliated in front of millions of people. So, you have to be willing to put yourself in the situation where you can get humiliated but at the same time if you do well then it gives you tremendous confidence,” he had said.   

“If I talk about the last IPL, I had lot of anxiety before the games; that was probably the reason I was not completely expressing myself in terms of the skills I had, like not bowling yorkers at all. Then I realised: “I have these skills, I can do it in the nets, I can do it in the competition”. So, it was just a mindset tweak that made the difference.” 

This format is not just about express pace and natural ability. It is for the bowlers who stay a step ahead of the batter. Knowing when to bowl what is the key, which comes with experience and a ticking brain. Years of toil in domestic cricket helps develop cricketing acumen. The IPL platform has given bowlers like Patel motivation to keep getting better. What they lack in pace they make up with control. Accuracy is an asset in T20. 

On Sunday night, when the pressure was the highest in a must-win game for both the star-studded teams, Patel outperformed Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult of MI. 

POLISH SKILLS, REPEAT

In the interview, Patel had spoken about the confidence he is feeling in his game this season. “I am not going to compare myself to Bumrah and Boult and all those guys, at the same time I know my skills are there and thereabout. I am not very far behind them. They have been very consistent over the years. This is probably the first year where I have been put in into these pressure situations and I have done well. My goal is to keep this mindset, keep improving, keep polishing whatever skills I have, adding a few things here and there, probably have more impact with the bat whenever I get an opportunity. These are the things I am looking at if we end up finishing the second half of IPL in September (well). If that ends up happening that will be my goal in that.”   

A seasoned first-class cricketer, Patel’s stock ball is the hard-length delivery, but he knows how to adapt. “My stock ball is the hard-length delivery… but many times, the game dictates something else, like in Sharjah I try to bowl slower balls, in Abu Dhabi, I had 80 per cent quick deliveries. I always let the situations dictate what I am going to bowl rather than thinking that I am a fast bowler and need to bowl quicker or slower balls without getting into the game.”   

The rewards are coming now. “This was my sixth time on a hat-trick and the first time I have got it. Last three years have been a breakthrough because some people bloom late and I consider myself one of those people - I definitely bloomed late.”

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