Shamar Joseph seems to be going indefinitely with his follow-through. When it peaked, as it did in Perth earlier this year, it completely turned and ended quickly. It’s as free-spirited as the way he leaves a cricket ball or the smile he gives.
With hands on his head and a foolish smile on his face, Joseph had run all the way to the point area in the center of his opening over. Yash Thakur had just missed an opportunity to take his first wicket in the Indian Premier League, despite an outstanding diving attempt at short fine leg.
He looked disappointed as he sat in the dugout during the 13th over of the run chase. “It’s the first time I’ve seen him quiet in four weeks,” jokingly said head coach of LSG Justin Langer.
An hour ago, it was not the case. He had a smile on his face, a bounce in his step, and a tempo that would make the batters tremble. It all disappeared in a single, legal delivery. He had failed to maintain any part of his boot behind the popping crease off what was meant to be the final ball of his first-ever IPL over. Joseph returned to his bowling mark, grinning despite missing his first wicket, as the umpire extended his arm and the speakers erupted.
The next ball was an off-cutter that sailed across the keeper and batter for another wide with a four. The ball after that, which was slower and out from the hitter’s arc, was judged wide. Then another no-ball appeared. Phil Salt smashed a free-hit down the ground for a six at the end of a quick and lively over that had the batters caught off guard and unable to middle the ball.
The opening over, which lasted 22 runs, was anticlimactic enough for KL Rahul to come and put an arm around the young pacer’s shoulder, and for Joseph to valiantly bear the smile that was erased by nine balls, both legitimate and illegal.
Joseph replaced the Afghanistan pacer Naveen ul Haq, who had performed ok but lacked the kind of effect that his pace could produce to turn around games the way Mayank Yadav had done in two games. Joseph’s pace might have allowed him to accomplish that. But he crumbled under pressure, having only played in four white-ball games and suffering from pre-game anxiety.
As depressing as the final stats of 0 for 47 were, along with three balls out of nowhere and seven wides, there were deliveries that made the hitters uneasy. Some sped by them, some offered signs that they would be ignored, and some took the risk. When Shreyas Iyer was declared to be behind, Joseph’s follow-through was at its best, going so far as to create a celebrappeal backlash (albeit the ruling was later overturned upon review). However, as many fast bowlers have encountered in the past, it was also a rough introduction to the ills of high-profile T20 cricket for the Baracara pacer, whose career had reached Bengal.
However, Salt made sure he could profit from the early opportunity he had against Joseph. Within the first three balls of the third over off Krunal Pandya, he defined the playing ‘V’ with a lift over the bowler’s head, a swipe past midwicket, and a drive through extra cover, all of which resulted in boundaries. Even as the game continued to slip away from LSG, he played those shots with such authority that Krunal, who has been incredibly productive in the middle overs this season, wasn’t pulled back into the assault.
Joseph gave Salt another break in the seventh over, palming a clean catch at deep square leg over the boundary ropes. As impressive as his unbeaten 47-ball 89 readings were, Salt was unable to display his most destructive batting form; it was uneventful and arduous at times, with the exception of a 98-meter six he struck off Mohsin Khan’s slower ball in the 15th over. Even so, he provided sufficient proof that he belonged here, especially considering that he was Sunil Narine’s secondary partner and had not impressed in the previous games.
As Mitchell Starc had done earlier in the day, he backed Gautam Gambhir’s publically expressed support for him the day before. On an IPL day when Joseph was unable to establish his dominance, Salt succeeded. In contrast, Joseph and Salt did nothing more than maintain the game’s momentum from where it was at the finish. Their individual teams’ results for the day were mostly reflected in their performances.
The last instance in which the visitors held an edge, by whatever small margin, came 10 balls into the game when LSG were placed 19 for no loss. The momentum had changed with the removal of Quinton de Kock and the amazing backward point dive by Ramandeep Singh to remove Deepak Hooda. Krunal Pandya and Ayush Badoni had a hard time getting underway. Aside from his late exploits, Nicholas Pooran was barely able to make run-a-ball 21 at the end of the 17th over.
Sunil Narine was their main source of problem, limiting them to only one run in each of his 24 deliveries during the middle overs on a surface that did not spin much. In fact, LSG only scored one boundary in 48 balls of spin. Their struggles with spin bowling were little more than a continuation of what had happened to them in the two previous games (against DC and GT), where they had managed to score just three boundaries out of 96 deliveries.
Though Justin Langer, the head coach of LSG, disagreed, Starc was ready to accept the LSG hitters’ justification that the pitch was a little two-paced. Langer observed, “The wicket looked really good.” “Our batting has failed us in the last two games. Although historically we have been a very effective defending team, we weren’t as successful defending as we had been because of our hitting.”
Gambhir had stated on Saturday that he doesn’t think there is such a thing as a complete performance—not even after KKR crushed Delhi Capitals by 106 runs earlier in the season. Even though KKR dominated the field, the bat, and the ball on Sunday, it’s unlikely that he will regard the team’s 8-wicket victory over LSG as a perfect game. However, it was clear to his counterpart Langer that all departments needed to have the holes filled.
“We definitely didn’t play our best game,” Langer said. “After playing on Friday night and then traveling yesterday, we expected our lads to put forth a great effort. Regretfully, we were down everywhere. Thus, it’s disappointing from that perspective. We dropped a few catches, we had a lot of extras today, and we kept losing wickets. We didn’t practice these fundamentals of the game today, despite the fact that we like to pretend we pride ourselves on them.”
It was just one of those cricket days when one player was extremely fortunate while the other was not, and when one team performed admirably while the other did not.
