KL Rahul rattled out the fastest half-century in IPL, off 14 balls, against Delhi Daredevils on Sunday. (Source: PTI)
Rahul’s canvas of strokes
His angular stance and his slender frame make KL Rahul resemble a thin diagonal line when he swivels to play the pull shot. With no copybook sideways arch or the recoil — that attributes that lend the stroke an inherent machismo — missing; the Rahul pull, at times, can be confused for a glance. It’s a beautifully executed shot but you don’t see it in every Rahul inning.
The opener shows extreme discretion in playing the pull – his notoriously wonky shoulders forces him to unfurl it only when it’s an absolute necessity. Outside the off-stump, he unleashes his percentage strokes — the cut, or sometimes, when he has more time at his disposal, those delightful square drives and back foot punches.
A little closer, he has learnt to ramp the ball over third-man or finer. Only when the ball drifts to the middle and leg, does Rahul look to pull, rather glide, it behind fine-leg. In Tests matches and ODIs, he is happier to get behind the line and fend it.
Twice did he pull out that stroke while rattling out the fastest half-century in IPL, off 14 balls, the number of balls he generally consumes to open the account in Tests. Trent Boult was the first recipient, the fourth ball of the first over. It was supposedly the set-up ball. The first three were on the fuller side, which he deliciously crunched to the fielders. But the ‘full-short’ trick doesn’t quite work on the sluggish, or at best pace-less Mohali strips of recent vintage. Still it was a difficult shot, against a left-arm quick angling the ball into the body. Rahul couldn’t time the ball as well as he would have liked, though the ball bargained enough wood to clear the ropes.
In the next over, Mohammed Shami was shown a more comprehensive demo. This time, he perfectly gauged the length, direction and pace and got perfectly under it to smear the ball for his second six of the match. Those two set the tone for Punjab’s chase of a competitive-but-not-daunting total of 166. In between the two strokes were a couple of gorgeously-timed fours through the off-side, the fluid follow-through frames can do his walls.
Those are strokes that concedes his sense of comfort. Given the authority of execution, he’s clearly in fine touch and a finer frame of mind — the most experienced IPL leggie Amit Mishra, who was tonked for 24 runs in an over would give testimonials. In the end, it was the heady momentum he had struck that undid him, than any piece of maverick genius. A Boult full toss, of all deliveries, picked him.
In a top-four that doesn’t boast of flaring firepower, more so as the ageing Yuvraj Singh is reduced to a few flashes of his heyday splendour, Rahul is a vital cog in a group that features the familiar faces of Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair. They might be less glamorous names, in the T20 context, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. Agarwal, with 2,500-odd runs in domestic cricket this season, can leave the bowlers devastated when the mood hits him. Karun showed his credence with an innings that perfectly blended big-hitting and opportunistic accumulation, so much so that Miller and Stoinis were hardly called to wield the long handle.
The lack of big names could in a way liberate Rahul’s T20 career too. At RCB, his quality was lost in the billowing brilliance of Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson and Virat Kohl. Though, last year, in IPL 9, he would have been assigned a more definitive role, had he not injured his shoulder and missed the entire IPL, plus the Champions Trophy. The injury also stalled his progress in T20s and ODIs in the subsequent months. But with a stunning start to the new IPL season, Rahul can reclaim all that he has lost in those depressing months. And pull out those angular pulls more frequently.
Mujeeb’s mystery
In the ICC World Cup qualifier, Mujeeb had shown the world that he had genuine pedigree. (Source: IPL)
Mujeeb ur Rahman, who became the youngest IPL debutant on Sunday, answers to an interesting trivia — the first, and the only, player born in the century to play international cricket.
In the ICC World Cup qualifier, he had shown the world that he had genuine pedigree. In the qualifier final, he purchased the wickets of Gayle and Rovman Powell, among others for a four-wicket haul. And against Delhi Daredevils, he reposed the team management’s faith — it was a leap of faith because few teams have the courage to name a rookie as their fourth overseas player. His spell of 4-0-28-2 included the wickets of Kiwi big-hitter Colin Munro and Rishabh Pant, besides affecting a smart run out of Delhi’s top scorer Gautam Gambhir.
It’s as much as his variations — off-breaks, doosra, leg-breaks, wrong’un — as his accuracy that made him a difficult customer to get away with. He rarely bowls short, hardly strays down the leg or gives too much room for batsmen to free their arms. If you miss the ball, as did Munro, more often than not you’re either bowled or lbw. Pant was done in by the googly. All the skills are fine, but you don’t often see a 17-year-old from Afghanistan exuding such composure on his IPL debut against some of the finest players of spin on a packed Sunday. That’s what makes him even more special.
Brief Score: Delhi Daredevils 166/7 in 20 overs (Gautam Gambhir 55 off 42, Rishabh Pant 28 off 13; Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2/28, Mohit Sharma 2/33) lost to Kings XI Punjab 167/4 in 18.5 overs (KL Rahul 51 off 16, Karun Nair 50 off 33) by six wickets