Vijaykumar Vyshak relied on wide yorkers to counter GT’s attack © BCCI/IPL The Gujarat Titans-Punjab Kings encounter was the last game in the first round, and the starting XIs always give a glimpse of what to expect from a side during the course of the season. Gujarat Titans were the second slowest scoring team in the Powerplay in the two seasons since the inception of Impact Player, and having three relatively slow starters in the top-three was a bit questionable team-building. If there was one night they could get away with – even if they were chasing 244 – it was against this Punjab Kings attack, whose pace pack was heavily front loaded. Even a slow start could be made up later on the dew-laden night. Titans were 17/0 after three overs in their chase, but once the swing died down, they smashed 44 runs in the last three overs of the Powerplay to reach 61/1, 12 runs behind Kings at the same stage. The home team cashed in on an easy-paced track, and by the end of the 14th over, they were 30 runs ahead of Kings’ total in their batting innings as they kept abreast with the asking rate. 75 off the last six with eight wickets in hand and two well-settled batters in the middle made Titans the favourites, and it was at this point that Vyshak Vijaykumar was brought in as the Impact Sub. Known for his change-of-pace skills, Vyshak has had superior numbers in evening games (Avg 24,33, ER 8.11) as compared to night games (Avg 32.20, ER 10.91) in his short IPL career. This was not a surface that offered hold, and the dew made it nearly impossible to grip the ball to land his slower balls. Arshdeep Singh, who bowled the 13th over, found the ball was reversing as Kings decided to go to a wide yorker plan, trying to take the ball away from the batters’ hitting arch. Innings progression Phase Kings Titans Powerplay (1-6) 73/1 61/1 (-12) Middle overs (7-15) 156/4 174/2 (+18) Death overs (16-20) 243/5 232/5 (-11) Vyshak hit his straps right away with overs 15, 16, and 17 bowled between him and Marco Jansen, which only produced 18 runs as the two set batters failed to hit a single boundary with 14 wide yorkers, putting the target beyond Titans’ reach. It helped Kings significantly as Vyshak bowled 15 of the 18 balls of his spell to left-handers Sherfane Rutherford and Rahul Tewatia, while Jansen bowled eight of his 12 to Jos Buttler with their natural angles over the wicket to opposite-handed batters taking it away, with reverse swing further aiding it. Kings bowled 38 off the 41 deliveries (including wides) from the 15th over in the channel outside the off-stump and 18 off those in the wider outside off-stump line. Of the 18 balls in the widest line channel, Titans could muster only 21 runs and hit just two boundaries. Line Balls Runs ER Wides 4s/6s Wide outside off 13 21 9.67 5 2/0 Outside off 20 38 11.40 0 2/0 Stumps 2 2 6.00 0 0/0 Down leg 1 2 12.00 0 0/0 Vyshak did not bowl a single off pace delivery and stuck to the full-length zone throughout his spell. 0/28 in three overs might not be something that is the most highlight-worthy in an action-packed league, but it was the day when the Karnataka seamer triumphed with odds stacked heavily against him and his team.
