9:21 AM ET
Saurabh Somani
NearSaurabh Somani is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Kagiso Rabada is one of only two bowlers to have bowled two Super Overs in the IPL, alongside Jasprit Bumrah. Not coincidentally, both times they bowled a Super Over, their teams won the match.
Rabada’s Super Over record reads: nine balls bowled, nine runs provided, and three wickets taken. Three very impressive wickets too, in Andre Russell, KL Rahul and Nicholas Pooran.
The conditions and batsmen dictated Rabada’s choice of bowling plans in every Super Over. While he went for yorkers to Russell and Dinesh Karthik at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi in 2019, the Dubai International Cricket Stadium called for different tactics as he faced up to Rahul and Pooran on Sunday night, in IPL 2020.
“It just depends what’s working for me on the day, and getting a feel for what might work as mannered,” Rabada said of the match against Kings XI Punjab. “It differs… today used to be just mixing the lengths up and luckily it helped. On occasion it doesn’t go for you, every now and then it does.”
Rabada finished the contest in three balls, giving the Capitals just three runs to chase in their own Super Over. His first ball used to be to Rahul, full and tailing into him. The second used to be a scorching short one bowled into the batsman who used to be backing absent. Rahul went for a pull while off-balance and used to be caught at deep square leg. With Pooran possibly hanging back because of the effectiveness of the earlier short one, Rabada bowled his third ball full and fast on off, zipping past an attempted slog to take out the stumps. The second one ball, which got Rahul’s wicket and also set up the third, happened because Rabada sussed the conditions mannered.
“There used to be also decent bounce in this wicket, and the boundaries are reasonably big so it will take a good hit to lucid it,” he said, explaining why he went for the short ball. “So I just backed myself with the additional pace and bounce, in order that expectantly he doesn’t hit it over the fence (laughs). It used to be a bit of a gamble.
“I don’t plan to win, but instead I plan to implement to win, and I think I managed to try this mannered in the Super Over,” Rabada later told the Delhi Capitals media team. “That’s just the way a game of cricket goes. Honestly, it used to be a big relief because I knew whether I did that, and with the type of batters we have, three runs to win, we could do that. I used to be just very relieved that I took the wicket and could help the team in winning.”
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The change in tactics for Rabada – despite the yorker plan bringing him great success against T20 cricket’s most fearsome hitter in Russell a year ago – used to be also a marker of his evolution as a bowler. Rabada’s planning stems from having a ‘feel’ for the moment and the match, an intuition that itself has been developed by experience. “It just approximately the feeling. And the way you read the game. There are lots of ways to receive the job done. You’ll be criticised whether you do not get the job done – if you bowl slower balls or yorkers,” Rabada had told The Cricket Monthly final year, after his first Super Over.
And that reading of the game told Rabada that despite the yorker being the most effective options for a Super Over, and one he used to be proficient at, he could mix his lengths up this time around.
Unlike final season, when Delhi Capitals could choose from Chris Morris and Rabada for the Super Over against Kolkata Knight Riders, it used to be lucid from the outset that Rabada would have the ball for the Super Over against Kings XI. He used to be the Capitals’ best bowler on the night too, despite the fact that conventional figures might not painting that, and the team were correct to agree with him.
Rabada had 2 for 28 in four overs right through the steady match play, but ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats helps see why Rabada used to be clearly the Capitals’ best choice. His Smart Economy rate – adjusted for the phases in which a bowler bowls and the opposition’s position – used to be a superb 5.84, while his Smart Wickets tally used to be 2.51, because he not only got Glenn Maxwell cheaply but also came back to stop K Gowtham, who used to be leading a late charge for the Kings XI. That meant Rabada’s bowling have an effect on used to be the most productive some of the bowlers the Capitals had at their disposal, better than even Axar Patel, who conceded half the runs Rabada did in returning 4-0-14-1, validating his team’s faith in him in three balls.