Bhuvneshwar credits video analysis for top-order takedown

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Gujarat Lions. Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Banana swing. 4-1-28-2. This was the official sequel to his spell in Rajkot, where his analysis was a near-identical 4-0-29-4.

Like in Rajkot, Bhuvneshwar began by administering a giddying dose of swing bowling. The sequence of his first four deliveries read: outswinger, inswinger, outswinger and, with the batsman probably playing for the inswinger in keeping with the alternating pattern, outswinger. Dwayne Smith couldn't put bat on a single delivery. Bhuvneshwar finished with a maiden and Ashish Nehra followed suit at the other end. This game was going to be decided in the Powerplay, decided by Bhuvneshwar and Co.

Midway through his second over, Bhuvneshwar, taking a cue from Nehra's field, did away with the first slip and had a short third man, while pushing the point fielder back. Smith had bunted a single to end a sequence of 13 dot balls, but the big hits remained elusive - Bhuvneshwar had cut off Smith's and Brendon McCullum's favourite boundary-hitting area with the deep point.

In a desperate attempt to break loose, Smith slashed at one that swung away and the ball landed in short third man's hands. He made 1 off 9 balls. Bhuvneshwar suggested that the disciplined bowling, buttressed by the run-drying field, provoked the shot that led to Smith's dismissal.

"I didn't want to get him out on the third man," Bhuvneshwar said. "I took point back for him because he is very good there and square leg. But our plan was not to give them boundary on the square."

There was more Rajkot redux, though, in the manner Lions captain Suresh Raina took on Bhuvneshwar. Raina, having launched his counter-punching innings in the first leg with a torrent of boundaries against Bhuvneshwar, was threatening an encore with a six and four off successive deliveries in the fifth over. Bhuvneshwar, in his third over, continued to persist with bowling full, and two balls later Raina punched a drive back to him for his second wicket. This was a different pitch to Rajkot - two-paced with the ball stopping on the batsmen.

The Lions had held Aaron Finch back for more middle-order beef, and sent Dinesh Karthik at No.4. David Warner was keen on furthering the momentum created by Bhuvneshwar and Nehra, and deployed Mustafizur Rahman for the last over of the powerplay. McCullum, then on 3 off 11 balls, had had enough, and his attempted swipe over leg side ballooned over point, but Shikhar Dhawan couldn't cling on to the catch running back.

Warner, however, was getting his field spot on. With Mustafizur bowling cutters to Dinesh Karthik, he moved Kane Williamson to short gully and clustered the off side with a backward point, cover point and a short cover. Karthik was out to the fourth ball after his leading edge was snaffled brilliantly by a diving Williamson.

Two overs later, McCullum, throttled by the prickly bowling, perished to a lofted hit to long-off for 7 off 19 balls. At 34 for 4 in 7.4 overs, Sunrisers had effectively pushed their opponents out of the game. Bhuvneshwar said the successful field placements were a result of meticulous research on their opponents.

"That's pretty much from video analysis, from what we see on TV," he said. "We know where they play the shot mostly so we try to put the fielder back there, so we can save boundary or we can give singles. If you look, once or twice in the game we took the fielder back and the ball went there."

Bhuvneshwar, the leading wicket-taker for Sunrisers with 12 scalps from eight games, said the team's flexibility and bowlers' understanding of their roles made it a more efficient unit.

"It's not a set pattern. It depends on the wicket, batsmen and whatever the condition is," he said. "Like today, I bowled three overs in the Powerplay [but] generally I bowl two overs. I bowled because I took wickets and there was a bit in the wicket for the bowlers. There might be matches in future where me and Ashish Nehra can bowl three-three overs.

"If you look at me and Ashish Nehra, we are swing bowlers. The captain wants us to swing the ball at the start and take wickets, which is our strength. If you look at Mustafizur he is the kind of bowler who bowls good yorkers and slower balls. That's because of his different action. The good thing is everyone is clear with his plan."