Harpreet Brar, 6’2″ applies the slow left arm hand brakes on a rampaging Rajasthan after Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh shore up Punjab total

Wiles of Brar

First impressions of Harpreet Brar, the slow left arm tweaker, are misleading. A standard run-up, a simple action and straightforward variations. He breaks the ball away from the right hander; he slides the ball into them. There is nothing terrifying. But watch him closer, and the subtlety of his craft emerges. He modulates his pace supremely, varies his length by fractional margins but enough to confuse batsmen, mixes his angles and release points, and has a knack of bowling the right ball at the right time.

He was an exception on Sunday. He was not just the most prolific wicket-taker but also the most economical one. His four overs, on an afternoon both teams put 200-plus runs on the board, cost only 22 runs. The next best economy rate was Yuzvendra Chahal’s 7.50. Eight bowlers leaked more than 10 runs an over.

But wicket-taking knack trumps miserliness in any format. The three wickets defined the game. First was Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who had struck an irresistible momentum. Quickened speed fooled him. This one was bowled at 92.6 kph, whereas the previous ones were in early to mid 80s. The teenaged Suryavanshi was a trifle late on the shot and couldn’t get fully under it.

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Next was the prized scalp of Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was lulled into doom by a slower, floatier delivery outside the off-stump. He then bowled Riyan Parag with an armer to snuff out Royals’ aspirations. But that was after a whirlwind Jaiswal-Suryavanshi opening stand.

Heroic Jaiswal

Some batsmen have such a special relationship with the ball that they seem to have something of a fly-vision, the ability to see it all in slow motion, to read its mind and imagine its path. Jaiswal reduced Arshdeep Singh, the country’s highest wicket-taker in T20s, to a nervous wreck, pillorying 22 runs in the very first over of Royals’ pursuit of 220.

The audience would remember Jaiswal’s charge as one of the most brutal they had ever watched. A raging, rampaging young batsman venting out his angst of a summer of discontent. The first stroke—a swing over mid-wicket, dragging the ball outside off-stump—was one of pure disdain. The third ball was powered over mid-off, the fourth scooped over the keeper, and the fifth sledgehammered over square leg. An edged-out-swinger for a four off the sixth ball, and a thrilling chase of 220 was unfolding.

Not to be left behind, Suryavanshi powered sumptuous sixes and nearly stole the thunder from Jaiswal. No shot was as glorious as the thump over Marco Jansen’s head for a six. He then thwacked the beanpole South African over mid-wicket.

The scorers would return home with dead fingers, because the run-making happened in a dizzying hurry. On the 17th ball, the pair celebrated their 50-run stand. When Suryavanshi departed for a 15-ball 40, the score read 76 from 4.5 overs. When the powerplay overs ended, Jaiswal had turbocharged them to 89/1.

But the flaw of Royals, especially when chasing tall totals, is that they fold up after Jaiswal’s exit. The same movie played out again. Ten balls later, they lost Sanju Samson, skying to Marco Jansen at long-off; two overs on, Parag too perished. Dhruv Jurel fought till the end, but could not drag them over the line.

Wadhera’s waltz, Shashank’s sizzle

The regular top-order trident of Punjab Kings are so scintillating stroke-players that the labours of the middle-order have often passed unsung. Either it is the nonchalant six-hitting of Priyansh Arya or the bottom-handed brawn of Prabhsimran Singh, the opening pair, with the spoils of 47 sixes between them in a season of top-three acts. Then rides in Shreyas, whose gear-shifts have been as smoothly spectacular as sports cars.

Nehal Wadhera with a glorious 70(37) under pressure 👏

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All three fumbled on a surface where the ball behaved with the lethargy of someone knocked off the siesta. But Nehal Wadhera and Shashank guaranteed that the Kings recuperated 3 for 34 and then 4 for 101 to post 219 for 5, with controlled rather than chaotic hitting.

The left-handed Wadhera was the example of a T20-version of a steady player, one who waits for the loose ball, one who waits for an opportunity to essay his percentage strokes but one who makes the most of those balls. The bowlers, even as worldly-wise ones as Wanindu Hasaranga, bowled too short and into his body, which he ferried to the fence with muscled artfulness.

Shashank Singh sizzled in Jaipur heat with superb 59*(30) 🔥

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On a moderately quick surface, and against modestly quick bowlers, the pull was his shot on speed-dial. He swung Fazalhaq Farooqi over square-leg. He ripped Hasaranga apart with a pair of fours and a six in seven balls. The mini-onslaught liquidated the mounting scoreboard pressure, with captain Iyer struggling for placement, en route to a restrained 30 off 25 balls.

After Iyer’s departure, Wadhera uncorked strokes of such measured mastery that he whipped up memories of a heyday Yuvraj, his idol. Soon, Shashank assumed the boundary-smashing responsibility. Unlike Wadhera, the right-hander from Bhopal moves generously in the crease, was once given an informal warning by the umpire because he stood too far outside the crease that he encroached into the danger area. But the strokes, especially down the ground, were rendered in classical notes. He is schooled in modern shot-making too, as he repeatedly scooped the ball to the left of the fine-leg fielder.

He swiftly raised the momentum. From 11 off 10 balls, he raced to his half-century in 27 balls. His knock would be the crushing difference between the teams.