PBKS vs RR: Jaiswal grabs his second chance with 68 off 41 against Punjab Kings

Playing his first match after a month, Yashasvi Jaiswal set up Rajasthan Royals’ chase of 190 with 68 off 41 at the top of the order. Devdutt Padikkal’s struggle kept Punjab Kings in the hunt, but Shimron Hetmyer’s late blows brought in a six-wicket win and took RR to 14 points.
Jaiswal nails comeback
Jaiswal had been dropped after scores of 20, 1 and 4, and had spent more than a month on the bench before his comeback last afternoon. How much this innings meant was clear from his celebration for his fifty – even as the RR dugout stood up to applaud, Jaiswal held his bat in his left hand and slowly pumped it with determination, and then proceeded to do an elaborate, slow-motion f-pump with his right hand. All along, the celebration seemed to be self-congratulatory; he was barely looking at his dugout.
For someone who is still only 20 and hasn’t quite cracked the T20 game yet – as a strike-rate of 127 suggests – Jaiswal played a pretty intelligent knock and maintained a steep scoring pace. Six of his 11 boundaries came against the medium pace and wayward lines of Sandeep Sharma, and three of the remaining five were taken off the equally friendly pace of Rishi Dhawan.
The longer and shorter square boundaries, depending on which pitch on the square is used, can make a massive tactical difference in T20, and that variation in sizes is particularly evident at larger outfields such as DY Patil Stadium. But the difference at Wankhede in the square boundaries would have been about 20 feet at most on Saturday. It is already a lightning quick outfield, and if the ball is struck well, the longer side remains only relatively so. But it seemingly continues to occupy plenty of cells on analyst spreadsheets default, and consequently, in team strategies.
Yashasvi Jaiswal plays a shot during the match between PBKS and RR. (Source: iplt20.com)
Still, Sandeep began wide outside off towards the longer side and Jaiswal made sure he collected a few easy fours. Sandeep overcompensated then, and Jaiswal flicked a gorgeous pick-up off his pads for six.
Thereafter, Jaiswal would go straight over the bowler or through extra cover for the boundaries; there was a superb inside-out loft over extra cover from the line of leg stump off Rahul Chahar that comfortably cleared the longer boundary. He premeditated a few sweeps that didn’t really come off, but also got a couple of lap shots away.
It helped that Jos Buttler had taken apart Kagiso Rabada in his 30 off 16, and given RR the buffer to absorb a prolonged crawl from Devdutt Padikkal that kept PK in the match despite Jaiswal’s efforts. Padikkal made 31 off 32 at No.4 and mishit a full toss to extra cover to finally exit the stage at the end of the 19th over. Shimron Hetmyer had taken over from Jaiswal after the latter’s fall to Arshdeep Singh in the 15th, and ensured
RR did not mess up a match they had practically sealed, like Gujarat Titans had against Mumbai Indians on Friday. Mayank Agarwal had kept five overs of Arshdeep Singh and Rabada for the death, but when Arshdeep came back, RR needed just 50 from six overs. Jaiswal had done well to attack the middle overs from Rishi Dhawan, Sandeep and Chahar, none of which carried the same threat or accuracy.
Bairstow clicks finally
The ball didn’t come on as well in the first innings as it did during the chase, but Jonny Bairstow set PK on their way to a substantial score. Into his eighth innings in this IPL, Bairstow had faced 90 deliveries without hitting a single six, when he swung Trent Boult over the deep-square leg rope. With the ball holding a bit, Bairstow was bound to get under-edges with his all-hands style, but when he got it off the middle, it flew.
Jonny Bairstow set PK on their way to a substantial score. (Source: iplt20.com)
Even Buttler clears the front leg more for his bat-swings than Bairstow does; the latter makes up with incredible hand-speed. Like when he hardly moved to a Kuldeep Sen length delivery but opened the face late and forced it so hard into the ground it bounced over point and went for four.
Yuzvendra Chahal intervened with three strikes, including Bairstow, whom he forced to hit straight to long-on with one of his flighted deliveries slanted full into the pads. It seemed Chahal’s strikes would slow down the PK innings, but Jitesh Sharma, sent ahead of Livingstone, struck 38 from 18 to set what appeared to be a daunting target of 190.