OPINION
Follow UsRCB. Playoffs. Kohli. Delhi Capitals. Mumbai Indians.
For the next 36 hours, at least, chances are that these terms mentioned above will be flashing across your screens non-stop.
Heading into Thursday’s clash against the Titans at the Wankhede, the Royal Challengers needed a win to stay alive in IPL 2022 — on the night, they did not simply grab the two points, but did it in style.
Even better, the contest witnessed the much-awaited return to form of Virat Kohli who, despite riding his luck, played without an iota of doubt his best knock of the season. Kohli dominated bowlers like we’re used to seeing Kohli do, and, as a result, his side coasted towards victory. A lot of love is set to come the way of the former RCB skipper and frankly, he deserves every bit of it.
Amidst all the showering of love for Kohli and RCB, however, there is a good chance that the stellar efforts of a certain individual might end up going largely unnoticed. Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore ended up on the losing side on Thursday, but the left-arm spinner from Tamil Nadu has exited the Wankhede having significantly enhanced his reputation, quietly having proven that he belongs at the very highest level.
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It wasn’t until the seventh over of the chase that skipper Hardik Pandya threw the ball to Sai Kishore, and after the left-arm spinner sent down his first ball of the game, his T20 numbers flashed across the screen. Those unaware of Sai Kishore’s exploits at the domestic level might have been taken aback by what they saw on the screen: an economy of 5.5 and an average of 17.1 after 40 T20 matches. Numbers so ridiculously good that they almost feel fudged.
And yet, despite being the holder of such otherworldly statistics, Sai Kishore was playing only his third match in the IPL. He was a domestic behemoth alright, but the 25-year-old was still a largely unproven entity in the eyes of most. Of course if you’re an uncapped Indian player, you’re only going to be rated as a T20 cricketer if you shine in the IPL.
That Sai Kishore had only played 2 IPL matches despite being prolific domestically all these years wasn’t because he wasn’t cut for the highest level. It was because he simply ended up being the right man at the wrong franchise.
At the IPL 2020 auction, Chennai Super Kings bought Sai Kishore for his base price of 20 lakh, but the presence of Ravindra Jadeja and Mitchell Santner meant that the youngster, despite being the best left-arm spinner in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, was relegated to being a glorified net bowler at the franchise. In two years, he never even came remotely close to making a first XI appearance.
After being purchased for INR 3 crore by Gujarat Titans at the IPL 2022 auction, Sai Kishore wouldn’t have been mistaken for thinking he would be a starter, but GT’s persistence to play the extra seamer meant that he sat out the first 11 games of the season. He even saw his namesake Sai Sudharsan, someone 5 years his junior and barely a starter for Tamil Nadu, get an IPL cap before him.
In a recent interview, the left-arm-spinner told ESPN Cricinfo that he evolved as a bowler during his time at CSK despite not getting a single game, but even he would be lying if he denied that it didn’t hurt to see other uncapped players establish themselves as IPL mainstays as he carried drinks.
Whisper quietly, but for Sai Kishore, those days might now be long gone. For the 25-year-old is finally an IPL starter, and in three matches he’s already shown that the highest level is where he belongs. On Thursday, by the time he sent down the last ball of his spell, the Tamil Nadu man had made all those who’d not heard of him realize just how good a bowler he is.
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It is not often that you see an uncapped spinner completely outbowl and outshine Rashid Khan on a wicket tailor-made for the slower bowlers, but against RCB, Sai Kishore did just that. As Rashid, for once, was being taken to the cleaners by the RCB batters early in the chase, Sai Kishore waged a lone battle and kept the Titans single-handedly in the contest.
The left-arm spinner’s immaculate consistency and impeccable control has been the bedrock of Tamil Nadu’s dominance in white-ball cricket in the past three years, and on Thursday, it was the same accuracy that helped him boss the Royal Challengers batters.
On a slightly two-paced wicket, Sai Kishore landed all but 3 of his 24 balls on the exact same spot, attacking the stumps, and his precision coupled with his variation in pace troubled Kohli and du Plessis, who had no option but to play him out.
Despite bowling each of the 24 balls in his spell to two set batters, the Tamil Nadu man ended the night as the only bowler to bowl multiple overs and not concede a single boundary.
Just how good Sai Kishore was on the night was highlighted in his battle with Kohli, who looked like he was willing to take no prisoners. When Pandya threw the ball to Sai Kishore in the seventh over, Kohli was well-set and in the mood, batting on 34* (23). He’d even taken the attack to Rashid Khan, and looked like he was keen to dismantle all the GT bowlers, one by one.
Over the course of the next 7 overs in the chase, the left-arm spinner bowled 14 balls to the well-set, dangerous-looking Kohli, and remarkably they yielded just 8 runs. Despite his best efforts, Kohli was able to only take 8 singles off Sai Kishore, who beat the veteran on more than one occasion and was unlucky to not have his man.
To Gujarat’s dismay, though, the absence of a second credible threat on the night allowed du Plessis’ side to stroll to victory rather comfortably. RCB were only able to take 20 runs off the 4 overs delivered by Sai Kishore, but, as it turned out, they ended up getting home with eight balls to spare.
This RCB win, and subsequently Kohli’s apparent return to form, has ensured that for the next day and a half, the Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians clash will be built up incessantly. It has also ensured that we’ll at least be getting a dozen different op-eds on the franchise’s former captain and how he’s shown that ‘class is permanent’.
Only time will tell whether May 19 turns out to be significant in RCB’s IPL 2022 campaign. There is a good chance, however, that it might be looked back on as a momentous day in the IPL career of Sai Kishore, who has silently shown that he can hang with the big dogs.
