At Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium, there was a collective gasp as India completed with 11 runs in their second over. This was supposed to be an easy aim, given that both sides finished on 212 apiece in the allocated 20 overs, scoring 16 each in the first set Super Over. Or so you believed. In international cricket, nothing is simple, particularly when the opposition is captained by a talented player like Rohit Sharma.
Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi and pacer Avesh Khan were spotted warming up and moving their arms in between the five-minute interval. According to the Super playing conditions set by the ICC, Mukesh Kumar, who was India’s first pick, was not permitted to bowl in another Super Over. Avast looked the most like Avesh. In actuality, the right-arm pacer approached his mark after handing the umpires his headgear.
But as India’s skipper, Rohit Sharma, took the field, everything changed. For obvious reasons, he was the last Indian fielder to arrive. In this match, he had to bat three times in addition to fielding. Avesh was observed reclaiming his headgear from the umpire when Afghanistan’s hitters Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mohammed Nabi stepped out to bat. Was there a change at the last minute? Indeed, there was.
Here was Bishnoi, just where he needed to be. With the larger leg-side boundary at his disposal, he bowled a very effective opening delivery, dragging his length back a little bit to force the batsman to do all the work. Prior to then, Nabi had been creaming the ball to pieces, so he moved his weight and gave it a full swing, but the additional bounce made it difficult for him to maintain total control. At a distance, he could only reach Rinku Singh.
Next man in was Karim Janat. Bishnoi lengthened his body. He gave the right-hander no opportunity to go beneath it by going wide and full. Janat shoved it under the blankets in hopes of getting one. Ten off of four balls was the new equation.Gurbaz would go for the big one, Bishnoi knew. He attempted to bowl in a manner that would have fooled Nabi. It was pushed through faster, but it was little broader. Gurbaz was compelled to play a flat-batted swat by its trajectory. However, the connection was poor. Rinku received it immediately and used it to take his second catheter in two balls. Both Bishnoi and Rohit lifted their arms. Rather than being joyful, it was a relief. Following two sets of Super Overs and forty overs, India had the desired outcome.
Both of us were told to be ready but they saw two right-handers coming in, so they asked me to bowl with the bigger leg-side boundary.” He was probably talking to skipper Rohit when he said they.”
Dravid praises Rohit for his masterful Bishnoi move.
Rahul Dravid, the head coach of India, furthermore affirmed that Rohit came up with the plan to pass the ball to Bishnoi. “In the end, I believe Rohit followed his instinct and chose Bishnoi—no tricks, no plan, just a straightforward choice. I believe he thought there was a potential for the spinner to get two wickets. On that particular day, eleven was probably not a very good score. In the post-match news conference, Dravid stated, “It was one of those games where you knew they probably would have scored 12 runs if they batted six balls with the power they had.”
Bishnoi received praise from Dravid as well for maintaining his composure and producing three excellent deliveries.
“It was a wonderful choice, in my opinion, for the captain to take two wickets since he had the opportunity to hit two sixes. However, I felt that Bishnoi was exceptional because he bowled two fantastic balls. He just maintained the length back and dragged it back, and given how they were batting, I think a six would have been possible if the length had gone a little bit fuller. Really smart gut feeling from Rohit to go for wickets and be more upbeat and aggressive instead of maybe going with the safer choice, which is what most people would have anticipated,” Dravid continued.
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