The high-calibre leg-spinners such as Imran Tahir, Rashid Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal and Amit Mishra have really created an impact in the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in the last few years. They
all have made the leg-spin fashionable in this format of cricket. One leg-spinner, Piyush Chawla, however, remained marginalized and unnoticed among these highly skilled bowlers.
But Chawla stunned all by his super bowling performance in the first game of IPL 2020 edition played between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium stadium on Saturday.
CSK’s latest acquisition Piyush Chawla proved that he hasn’t forgotten his legspin spells of World Cup 2011, rather he is a better performer than before. That he is capable of scripting victory for his team
was the message Chawla’s successful bowling gave out. Chawla started his stint at the franchise in style as he dismissed Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma in his first over.
Chawla seems to have been observing Rohit Sharma’s game quite closely over the last few years. Rohit Sharma looked to be slightly uncomfortable before leg-spinners in these years. MI skipper’s strike rate against leg-spin bowlers also dipped considerably over the last few years.
Rohit Sharma fell prey to Chawla when the leggie, in the powerplay over, gave the MI skipper the temptation to play a lofted shot over the 30-yard circle. Rohit mistimed his lofted shot, and chipped the ball to Sam Curran at mid-off. It is an act of courage for any bowler to have given slight flight to the ball in the powerplay overs. Rohit’s dismissal actually paved the way for CSK’s victory in the opening match of the IPL.
As a matter of fact, Chawla kept the ball slow on an already slow pitch of Abu Dhabi. He troubled Saurabh Tiwary with his tight spell spins. Saurabh earlier played aggressive strokes off Ravindra Jadeja.
Chawla’s leg-spin bowling put pressure on batsmen of MI. The advantage of Chawla’s pressure on one end went to the bowlers on the other end as wickets fell on the other end.
As a result of pressure created by Chawla, Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed by Deepak Chahar, and Ravindra Jadeja got rid of both Saurabh and Hardik Pandya. A remarkable specialty of Chawla is his
patience. The significant part of his bowling strategy is delivering the slow ball repeatedly on the same spot and dodging the batsmen with his googly consistently.