A ball sails out of the stadium, takes with it a million ghosts
BENGALURU: On Saturday night, Chennai Super Kings needed 17 runs off the final over to deny
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
the lone slot up for grabs in the playoffs. Faf du Plessis tossed the ball to pacer
Yash Dayal
. The bowler from UP delivered a low full toss to MS Dhoni, which the CSK maestro sent out of the park.
Dayal watched the ball disappear and one could not help but think about the last over bowled by the pacer for Gujarat Titans against Kolkata Knight Riders last season.
KKR’s
Rinku Singh
had hammered Dayal in the last over, smashing five consecutive match-winning maximums.
Face buried in a towel, Dayal was a picture of despair. That infamous over haunted Dayal for a long time. The UP bowler wouldn’t play a game in the season after that, with GT eventually releasing him. It got so bad that mother, Radha even took ill seeing her son’s demotivated state.
Picked by RCB at the auction, on Saturday, at their home ground, following Dhoni's 110-metre effort, for a fleeting moment those ghosts may have resurfaced for the 26-year-old.
"When I got hit off that ball, I subconsciously went back to that place (match against KKR). But I have done well in the past, I have done well after that, so all that was running through my mind was to deliver a good ball. I didn't want to look at the scoreboard or the result. I just wanted to bowl well. I was confident of executing well," Dayal would say later.
A ball lost, a ball replaced, Dayal knew he had a new weapon to counter Dhoni with. The new ball stuck on the wicket and the slower deliveries gripped. Dhoni then top-edged a slower one for Swapnil Singh to pouch at deep backward square, sending the packed stadium into a tizzy.
For Dayal, it was personal redemption unfolding as he bowled slower deliveries and gave away just one run in the next four to seal RCB's win.
"God's plan baby," an ecstatic, and somewhat relieved, Rinku would post on social media. The young Dayal himself would worry about his mother. "Kaisa feel kar rahi ho (How are you feeling mom?)," would be his first words to his mother on a video call. After what happened to me last time, there was nervousness," he would say. "Since coming to this RCB setup, I have practised a lot and have delivered in matches. All that was going through my mind was to deliver two balls well. Even if I didn't execute it well, there were seniors right behind me. That helped me a lot."
Dayal revealed that it was
Dinesh Karthik
and Du Plessis who took the call for him to bowl the last over.
English (US) ·