With Gujarat Titans needing 75 runs off the last six overs in their chase of 244 runs against Punjab Kings in the IPL match at Ahmedabad last evening, Kings’ skipper Shreyas Iyer used pacer Vyshak Vijaykumar as an impact sub. The 28-year-old gave away only ten runs in his first two overs as he stuck to the plan of bowling wide of off to Jos Butler and Sherfane Rutherford. Titans could only score 50 runs in the last six overs and Punjab Kings pace spearhead Arshdeep talked about the bowling plan of Vyshak.
“The thought was simple and clear: we’ll make them play on the off side. Really happy for Vyshak. He’s putting in the hard yards in practice. The plan was if you’re going to miss, miss on the wider side. It does slip a bit with the dew, but the plan was to bowl as wide as possible. Credit goes to all batters who went in and smashed from ball one. There’s no par score,” said Arshdeep post the match.
The 28-year-old Vyshak, who has taken 47 wickets in 37 T20s in his career so far, had earlier played in the IPL for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The Karnataka bowler had picked up nine and four wickets in the 2023 and 2024 IPL seasons respectively before he was picked up by Punjab Kings for Rs 1.80 crore in last year’s mega auction. Though he failed to take any wicket in Tuesday’s match, his ten runs in his first two overs broke the momentum of Titans. Punjab Kings batsman Shashank Singh also talked about how Iyer went for Vyshak based on his instinct. “Shreyas is someone who works on instincts as a captain, which is why he is one of the best captains in the world right now. The way Shreyas brought in Vyshak, I felt it was the right time to bring him in. And the way he bowled—during the bowling meeting, we planned those things, and this was a planned move. The way he executed the plan was commendable because planning is one thing, and execution is another. He bowled during some tough overs, especially with the dew, and I felt that while fielding,” Shashank said post the match.
Vyshak’s first two overs coupled with a tidy over from Marco Jansen meant that the equation for Titans changed from needing 75 runs off six overs to needing 57 runs off 18 balls and the team eventually lost the match by 11 runs. Titans skipper Shubman Gill too talked about Vyshak’s plan.
“It’s not easy, you know, coming in as an impact player and delivering those yorkers. It’s never easy for someone who’s been on the bench for almost 15 overs. But I think credit to them, the way they bowled yorkers,” Gill said post the match.