Anatomy of Chahal’s hat-trick: Attack and defense

“I didn’t want to take a chance (for the hat-trick). If it was a dot ball, I was happy with that.”
These two divergent views, on the same over, are probably the best insight into Yuzvendra Chahal’s T20 bowling evolution. As he showed during his match-changing four-wicket over against Kolkata Knight Riders, the practitioner of the game’s most difficult art has internalised when to go for wickets and when not to. He’s always had the control, so moving back and forth between attack and defense, even in a format with the thinnest of margins, has become more a case of intent than ability for him.
Barely six months after being ignored for India’s 2021 T20 World Cup squad in favour of Rahul Chahar, Chahal looks set to have his best IPL ever – he’s already taken 17 wickets in just six games at an economy-rate of 7.33; his current highest season tally is 23 from 15 matches in IPL 2015.
“He is the most experienced leg-spinner in this country and in this tournament. He has shown how he controls his skill. He also showed how he can take wickets and change the game in a single over. He has shown leg-spinners that they are the match-winning bowlers in these competitions,” Rajasthan Royals bowling coach Lasith Malinga said about Chahal’s 5 for 40 at Brabourne Stadium against Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday night.

A hat-trick 👌A four-wicket over 👍A five-wicket haul 👏
: @yuzi_chahal put on a bowling masterclass as he regered #TATAIPL‘s first-ever hat-trick & powered @rajasthanroyals to a victory. 🙌 🙌 #RRvKKR
Watch his performance 🎥 🔽https://t.co/dfdVl6N7J1
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 18, 2022
At 40 runs needed off four overs with six wickets in hand, you can usually write off the defending side in a T20. It is easy to suggest in hindsight that KKR should have looked to play out Chahal and gone after the remaining three overs of seam. But Chahal himself had gone for runs in his previous three overs, and Shreyas Iyer was batting on 85, so there was no reason why the KKR captain shouldn’t have had a go. But putting the onus completely on KKR also misses the point. Chahal makes batsmen go after him when he is targeting wickets.
It is hard for a batsman – particularly in a format where he is supposed to constantly attack – to not get lured Chahal’s flight, regardless of the match situation; it is an instinctive reaction to the looping ball for most batsmen in T20, and needs remarkable self-denial to not play defensively.
Chahal then does them in either his dip, or sliding the ball in a bit quicker and a lot fuller on the line of the stumps, thus squeezing all swinging space away from the batsmen. He did the former to the left-hander Venkatesh Iyer, who was also beaten on the charge the ball leaving him rather than turning in.

Yuzvendra Chahal Sir Legendary Leg Spin grand master. Treat to watch Hat trick and Five Fer in IPL For the First time @yuzi_chahal Sir. Pose going to get more and more love. pic.twitter.com/CliMUdWLpI
— Ayush Ranjan (@AyushRa15743279) April 18, 2022
“You cannot bowl leg-spin to him mostly because he is a good hitter,” Chahal said about Venkatesh. “My googly is coming out very well now, so I was like the googly is better, I will take a chance with it.”
How the ‘trick happened
To Shreyas, Chahal sent down a wide legbreak in an attempt to get him to hit towards the longer off-side boundary. Expecting another wider one, Shreyas moved across to off stump so that he could reach the ball. But Chahal now slipped it in almost yorker-length into the stumps, catching Shreyas completely surprise. It is something he has done all season.
At the Wankhede Stadium, he tossed it up so much into Faf du Plessis, the ball actually pitched just outside leg stump. He wanted to deny du Plessis the hit with the spin to off, as well as the slog. The plan worked, du Plessis was forced to hit much straighter, and long-on was waiting.

Hattrick for Yuzi Chahal ✌️🎉 #YuzvendraChahal #RRvKKR #rr #RRvsKKR #IPL #IPL2022 #Cricket pic.twitter.com/Oh3S9JTFtY
— Proud भारतीय 🇮🇳 (@irahulchitti) April 18, 2022
At the DY Patil Stadium, Chahal was bowling wide to Abhinav Manohar, but he lofted him over extra cover and slog-swept him from about the same line. Promptly arrived an airy one on the stumps, and the dip, skid and bounce meant Manohar’s slog ended in a top-edged catch.
“I was planning to mix it up, that I had to bowl wider on this wicket (because of the longer off-side boundary). But still, couple of balls that I bowl stump to stump might be fuller,” Chahal explained his approach against KKR.
There was a 13-metre difference between the boundaries on both sides of the pitch at the Cricket Club of India. Ahead of the game, Sunil Gavaskar asked Chahal whether he and R Ashwin had decided who would bowl to the shorter side.
“I am used to bowling from the shorter side,” Chahal replied. “He (Ashwin) is an off-spinner, he definitely needs the bigger boundary for the right-handers. If someone hits me against the spin (to the shorter leg-side boundary), then it is a good shot.”
He said he was fine with missing a hat-trick against Mumbai Indians when substitute Karun Nair put down a catch at slip, saying that was part of the game. About the only time he appears disappointed with himself is when he overpitches it right under the bat to concede a simple straight hit.

“I knew in my mind that I have to take wickets in this over (hat-trick over) and that’s the only way the game would change.” – Yuzvendra Chahal pic.twitter.com/LY0Lp65ehd
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) April 18, 2022
It sounds incredible to even comprehend, but Chahal went from seeking the wickets of the Iyers to not trying to get Pat Cummins out in the same over. And still more incredibly, that was what brought him the hat-trick.
Chahal’s mind went back to the game against Lucknow Super Giants where he had sought to claim a five-for with his last ball and had bowled a googly that had instead been slammed for six. He didn’t want to make it harder for the following seamers this time.
“It is definitely a great feeling because I hadn’t got a hat-trick in my entire career,” Chahal told centurion and team-mate Jos Buttler after the KKR game. “I was thinking I should have bowled the googly but you remember the Lucknow match, Avesh (Khan) hit me for six, so I did not want to take a chance. So I thought I should bowl leg-spin only and it might be a dot ball.”
So even with the opportunity to take a hat-trick, having already come one dropped chance close in the season, Yuzvendra Chahal stuck to the tenets of T20 and bowled wider to the longer side of the ground because he wanted to earn a precious dot. But even the cricketing gods weren’t in the mood to deny him this time.