Underrated Sandeep Sharma delivers once again

“You never feel that when that guy is in the middle.” That was Rajasthan Royals’ skipper Sanju Samson’s response on being asked if he felt the game was “in his pocket” with Chennai Super Kings needing 40 off the last two overs at Chepauk on Wednesday (April 12). 

The man Samson was referring to needs no introduction. He has hunted down improbable targets off unrealistically few deliveries times beyond count to establish himself as the best at what he does beyond debate. When it is 40 needed off 12 and algorithmic predictors prophesy his side’s loss, the opponent can still only ill-afford complacency. 

On Wednesday, Chennai Super Kings were sitting pretty at 78 for 1 at close to the halfway mark in their 176-chase, with Ajinkya Rahane – fresh from a stellar assault against Mumbai Indians – and Devon Conway, motoring along swiftly in a flourishing alliance. But the Super Kings had the moment of awakening when Samson employed the Ashwin-Chahal-Zampa troika to inflict a collapse that saw them slump to 113 for 6 at the end of the 15th over. 

Ashwin trapped Rahane and Shivam Dube lbw in quick succession (ball-tracking replays confirmed Dube was not-out, but he opted against reviewing the on-field call) while Chahal had Ambati Rayudu and Conway caught off miscued shots in a double-wicket 15th over. In between, Zampa struck to remove Moeen Ali cheaply courtesy of an excellent running catch from Sandeep Sharma behind square. Dube, Moeen and Rayudu managed a solitary boundary amongst them, with their combined tally being a painstaking 16 off 21. The Super Kings, at the time of Conway’s demise, needed 63 off 30. 

The Royals may have had to contend with bowling with a wet ball but that was not the case as the umpires changed it suo moto at the end of the 12th over. The dry Kookaburra meant Ashwin and Chahal were still getting a good hold of the ball on a surface that was gripping, and at a venue that has historically favoured spin. The duo rode on the advantage and delivered two boundary-less overs in succession to tighten Royals’ grip even further. 

The middle-order power outage left the Super Kings precariously placed. But the stage seemed set: 54 off 18, Chennai’s home ground, a raucous crowd, Thala in the middle in his 200th game as CSK captain. He has bossed such equations with inimitable nonchalance all his life. So much so, that when his team needs 54 off 18 with him in the middle, it is the opponents who are under pressure, not him.

After two quiet overs, Dhoni had started getting into his elements. He swept Zampa towards fine leg for four and thumped him over deep midwicket for a maximum in the 18th. From the other end, Jadeja picked one four and two sixes in the penultimate over off Jason Holder to distill the equation down to 21 needed off the final over. Sandeep, who had bowled two overs in the powerplay for the wicket of Ruturaj Gaikwad, was tasked by Samson to defend. 

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Sandeep is extremely underrated; he is no ordinary bowler. An ordinary bowler does not dismiss Virat Kohli seven times, or Rohit Sharma and Chris Gayle four times each. No ordinary bowler picks at least 12 wickets for seven IPL seasons straight, which Sandeep did from 2014 to 2020. He is also one of the very few to have taken over 100 wickets at an economy below 8.

However, he is predominantly a Powerplay bowler, where few match his genius: 54 wickets at an economy of 6.84. Of his 116 wickets in the IPL so far, 68 are openers and No. 3 batters. That is not to suggest he is a mug at the death.

From the slower one to cutters, yorker to a treacherous knuckleball, the ability to use the width of the crease to creating awkward angles, Sandeep has many arrows in his quiver that make him a potent death operator. He has proven his mettle in that phase of the game while playing for Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), where his quota of four used to be split into two halves: two during the field restrictions and the remaining at the death.

In 2018, Sandeep shifted to Sunrisers Hyderabad, where the presence of death-over specialists like Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jason Holder and Rashid Khan meant he was often made to bowl three overs in the Powerplay and hardly at the death.

He served the franchise well between 2018-20, but played only seven games in 2021, picking just three wickets in his poorest season since his debut in 2013. Released ahead of the 2022 edition, he was picked by his former franchise Punjab Kings in the auction. However, he featured in no more than five games, with an even poorer return of two wickets that season.

Two years in the IPL circuit is long enough a time for a player – howsoever good or bad notwithstanding – to be forgotten. In this background, Sandeep, playing only his 14th IPL game in the last three years, did exceedingly well in doing what he did against the Super Kings. 

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He was up against a death-batting legend. No one has more runs and sixes than Dhoni’s 2586 and 179 in the last four overs of the IPL. As many as 57 of those 179 have come only in the 20th over. Kieron Pollard is a distant second with 1708, 140 and 33 correspondingly. Dhoni’s 20th-over strike rate of 245.74 is also the best amongst all batters with a minimum of 300 runs, with Pollard once again being second by a hefty margin of nearly 32 points (214.28).

Sandeep may not have been aware of the numbers, but he knew who he was up against. And the pressure was evident. He attempted a slower bouncer that ended up being a bizarre wide. The second one went down the legside, reducing Super Kings’ ask by two runs for free where every run mattered. He gathered his breath back and delivered a sensational yorker on the off-stump, disarming Dhoni entirely on what was the first legitimate delivery in the final over.

The margin of error was nearly non-existent for he was up against a man who devours bowlers if they miss even an inch. Sandeep learnt it the hard way when two of his attempted yorkers lacked execution and were sledgehammered for the flattest of sixes after ending up as low full tosses. The equation had now dropped to seven off three.  

Realising that he was unable to land the ball the way he wanted, Sandeep switched to round the wicket and delivered it out of Dhoni’s hitting arc. The result was a single. He switched to over the wicket for the left-handed Jadeja, managing to land a perfect yorker outside the off-stump to deny him any chance to get under the ball.

Jadeja did take a single but the two perfectly executed deliveries left a partially fit Dhoni needing to score five off the final ball. Sandeep landed the best of yorkers to restrict Dhoni to just a single, concluding the nerve-jangling contest with a three-run victory for the Royals to spoil a milestone match for the CSK skipper.

"In the last over, I wanted to execute yorkers," Sandeep told broadcasters after the game. "I've been bowling good yorkers in the nets. One side of the ground was bigger, so I thought I would use it and bowl at the [batter's] heel but they turned out to be low full-tosses and went for six. Then I changed my plan and went around the wicket, hoping for a change, and it was good that the result was different.

"I bowled over the wicket to Jaddu bhai and my plan was to keep the ball away from his reach. The shots he hit to Jason [Holder] were down the ground. So my plan was to take it away from his reach. And to Mahi bhai, my plan was to change the angle as I got hit for two sixes while bowling at the heel from over the wicket. So, I went around the wicket and bowled it wide, and changed the angle," he added.

Sandeep Sharma was a hero for some, a villain for others – depending on where their loyalties lied. But hero or villain, he did something few fancy doing against that man.