The game seemed to be in the balance until a game-changing over from Avesh Khan put Lucknow Super Giants on course for a win against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai on Monday. Why did Avesh bowl the 18th over when he could have easily bowled the penultimate or final over? Here we discuss that and a few other burning questions from the match.
Why SRH made the perfect call to give Washington Sundar the new ball
Washington Sundar made his early introduction count by sending back both left-handers in the top three in the powerplay. Image: Sportzpics
Before Monday, only one spinner – Murugan Ashwin – had taken a wicket in the powerplay in the first 11 matches of the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League. While several had bowled in that phase, the primary aim was containing the scoring rate while attacking the top-order with quicks in conducive conditions.
By that logic, SRH should have stuck with the quicks in the first six overs, especially after winning the toss and bowling first. But given Quinton de Kock’s issues against off-spinners – he averages 26.05 and strikes at 100.95 against them since 2020 in the IPL – it was an obvious call to bring an off-break bowler early.
However, there was a risk associated with it as his partner KL Rahul, who was also on strike for the first ball of the second over that Sundar bowled, had never been dismissed by off-spinners in the powerplay and countered them at a strike-rate of more than 200.
SRH gambled with the Sundar move, and it was the right one given that Sundar’s excellent record against right-handers – an average of 27.3 and 18 of his 27 wickets prior to this game coming against right-handers – helps him keep Rahul on the leash while attacking De Kock at the other end. He made it count by sending back both left-handers in the top three in the powerplay.
Is it actually useful if KL Rahul bats deep?
KL Rahul ambled along to a 40-ball half-century and eventually was dismissed for 68 in 50 balls. Image: Sportzpics
Lucknow Super Giants win by a whisker last night, but the overwhelming feeling was that they fell short by at least 15-20 runs in the first innings. Part of this was due to KL Rahul batting deep and not quite accelerating. Rahul did well to revert the early damage done by Sundar, but ambled along to a 40-ball half-century and eventually was dismissed for 68 in 50 balls, an overall strike-rate in the mid-130s.
A well-set batter batting deep into the game is often dangerous for the opposition side, especially when it’s someone who has the range of strokes Rahul has. However, in the last three IPL seasons, when Rahul has batted into the death after opening the batting, his death overs strike-rate remains in the range of 160-170, which isn’t quite where some of his contemporaries operate. Virat Kohli, for instance, has a strike-rate of 260.7 in the death when opening and batting through till the final four overs since 2019.
Given Lucknow’s batting depth last night, Rahul played in too much without firing much at the end and it pegged back LSG’s chances to post a total in the range of 180s, something that could have gone wrong for them against a better batting unit.
Should Manish Pandey be playing for LSG?
In the last five IPL seasons (excluding 2022), Manish Pandey has recorded a strike-rate over 130 only once while averaging in excess of 40 thrice. A good average is excellent to have in ODIs and Tests, but in T20Is, when it comes at the expense of a good strike-rate, it works against the team. Since the 2021 edition of the IPL, Manish has three fifties with only one of them coming at a rate of over 140.
On seven occasions, he has fallen in the 0-19 run bracket without good acceleration to start off with, thereby wasting valuable deliveries. While it makes sense still to have the experience of someone like Manish in anchoring the line-up, especially for a weak batting line-up, for Lucknow he is surplus to current requirements. Ayush Badoni is wasted down the order when he has the ability and game to bat in the top four. Deepak Hooda batting at No.5 isn’t also quite ideal for someone capable of taking down spinners.
Given that Jason Holder is here and Marcus Stoinis would join the team layer, it is best if LSG sits Manish out and play the rest in their favoured batting slots.
How did SRH mess up their batting order up?
On paper, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s best batter this season is undoubtedly Nicholas Pooran. But the hard-hitting West Indies wicket-keeper batter had five ducks in his last 12 IPL innings when walking out to bat in the second half of the innings below Aiden Markram.
Pooran’s strength is tackling spin. He averages 16.9 against pace and 35.8 against spin in the IPL while also scoring at a rate of over 160 against spinners. Using him in the 7-12 over bracket where spinners operate much more than quicks was the obvious ploy, especially since Markram’s strength lies in taking on pacers. Swapping the two batting positions would have helped SRH negate the threat of spinners operating to Markram.
The South African couldn’t get going against spin and ended up 12 off 14 balls. Even ignoring the difference between Markram and Pooran, it was still a poor strategy to use Markram ahead of Pooran considering that there was a right-hander already at the crease and both LSG spinners were ones turning the ball away from right-handers.
Why bowling Avesh in the 18th over was the perfect call
Avesh Khan delivered a sensational seven-run 18th over that yielded the wickets of Pooran and Abdul Samad. Image: Sportzpics
SRH needed 33 runs in 18 balls with a well-set Nicholas Pooran at the crease when KL Rahul threw the ball to Avesh Khan for his final over. It was a major call since the required rate wasn’t quite high enough and SRH could have easily played him out and taken on the other two quicks in the final two overs.
Avesh delivered a sensational seven-run 18th over that yielded the wickets of Pooran and Abdul Samad and turned the contest on its head. Even without the benefit of hindsight, this was a good call from Rahul given that his other death resources were Jason Holder and Andrew Tye, both of whom has good death overs records in the last few years.
Holder, often pencilled in as a powerplay bowler, has an average of less than 10 while bowling at an economy rate of just over 9 in the death overs in IPL since 2020. Tye, whose major impact comes in the death, is another good bowler in that phase, which meant that SRH couldn’t quite afford to play out Avesh Khan, who was easily their best bowler in the day. It proved to be the big difference as Lucknow went on to win by 12 runs.
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