MATCH STORIES
Follow UsThere are players who rise like a shooting star, make everyone wish a thousand wishes, and then disappear into the darkness of oblivion. Then, some players keep burning bright throughout their careers. They are your stars. Your chosen ones. Your Jasprit Bumrahs and Pat Cummins’.
And at the end, come the mortals. Who show enough talent to be trusted and shine for some time. But they disappear from the front line pretty soon and stay in the liminal spaces between fame and inattention.
There, they work hard. They keep improving on the talents they have developed, and then one day, the world realises that, oh boy, they have been actually shining for some time now, and it’s the world's bad that it missed them while being blinded by the glory of youth.
Sandeep Sharma’s story is of the last kind, and on April 22 against Mumbai Indians, he shone the brightest amidst a ramp walk of stars.
His first shot at fame was his triumph at the Under-19 World Cup in 2012, and he was picked up by the Punjab franchise in IPL 2013. There, from 2013 to 2017, he became a behemoth in the powerplay because of his two biggest strengths - his ability to swing the ball and his control of his line and length.
His upright wrist also rendered him a great seam position on the ball, and hence, his deliveries still moved laterally after pitching.
His speeds back then, and even now, revolve in the mid to high 120s and low 130s. But his concoction of strong basics and discipline nullified the fact that he wasn’t an express quick bowler. That’s why he was able to pick 40 wickets for Punjab in 144 powerplay overs at an economy of just 6.8 over six IPL seasons!
That exact prowess was at full display today. And you know the best part about it? It came after a long phase of him being sidelined because he wasn’t the same bowler in the powerplay when he joined Sunrisers Hyderabad and later Rajasthan Royals. In fact, in the last three IPL seasons, he took only three wickets in the powerplay.
Today, bowling against the mighty Mumbai batting unit, he picked up Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav. It was like watching an old magician who went on an exile from public life, return and do the same old trick that once made him famous.
Sandeep bowled the second over of the game and got his first ball to shape away from the left-handed Kishan after pitching on a length. Kishan left that delivery. The next one was bowled a bit fuller but on the stump line, and Kishan couldn’t get it past the bowler. The third delivery was almost a repeat of the first, and this time, after two consecutive dot balls, Kishan was sucked into poking at it.
Edged. Caught. Out.
On the first ball of the fourth over, he got Suryakumar Yadav out as well by bowling a scrambled seam delivery on the stump line, and in an attempt to flick it for a six, SKY mistimed it and was caught. SKY needed pace to execute that shot, but Sandeep hardly offered any pace to him on that delivery which was bowled at 126.6 kmph.
And just like that, with two wickets in two powerplay overs after conceding only four runs in them, Sandeep Sharma, the powerplay bowler, reappeared under the night sky of Jaipur after many years of being ineffective in that phase.
If that was an impressive new start in his ever-evolving journey, Sandeep Sharma, the death bowler, has been the epitome of continuous refinement. Before the game against Mumbai at Jaipur, where he took three wickets at the death and completed his first-ever fifer in the IPL, he proved his immense value against Lucknow Super Giants earlier in the season.
After having been reduced to 11/3 and then 60/4 by 7.3 overs, the Lucknow side was looking well set to execute the 194-run chase to perfection when KL Rahul and Nicholas Pooran took them to 145/4 at the end of the 14th over.
Then Sandeep Sharma arrived, only in the 15th over of the game, but bowled three overs for just 22 and picked up KL Rahul’s wicket. He executed his plan of wide deliveries to perfection and made Pooran and Rahul sweat a lot.
Ashwin later called him “quite the unsung hero” for RR for that performance and what he has done for the side overall since coming in as a replacement for Prasidh Krishna.
In Jaipur on April 22 (Monday), he bowled the 20th over of the game, giving just three runs and picked up three key wickets - Tilak Varma through a short pace off delivery outside off stump, Gerald Coetzee with another slow cross-seamed delivery, but bowled on a hard length outside off, and then he made Tim David hit a low full toss with scrambled seam towards the bigger leg side boundary.
All three are powerful hitters with long levers. But none of them could clear the boundary. All three were caught trying to hit this seemingly innocuous pacer into oblivion.
The only thing that went into oblivion tonight, as far as Sandeep Sharma is concerned, is the narrative that he is finished as a bowler.
His early success in the IPL and domestic seasons saw him get selected for the Indian team as well, but after playing two games for the team in blue, he never got picked again and fell off the radar. But after a five-for against a five-time trophy-winning side of the biggest league of the world, it has got to throw the spotlight on you.
After all, players like Sandeep Sharma are what the IPL was envisioned for - players who are no longer young but are still wily, skilful and hungry enough to go out there and do their thing with confidence.
The return of Sandeep has given Rajasthan an all-phase bowler who has a very good record bowling in the two toughest phases for a pacer - the powerplay and the death. He has seen it all and has done it all in the IPL.
Moreover, with Trent Boult, Nandre Burger, and Avesh Khan already there with their high pace, Sandeep adds a unique flavour to RR’s bowling cocktail, which has been on a roll this season.
Sandeep Sharma is still just 30. But in India, we have this tendency to be blinded by the glorious light of the youth, and players like Sandeep are just not enticing enough to bring in conversations. But take one look at his career and what he did today, and you’ll realise he’s one of those stars that make IPL worth watching because this is their stage to shine.
And shine, he did!
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