When Mohit got his bluff wrong

Bluff. Not to be confused with double bluff, which, sometimes, excitable and excited commentators use synonymously. Shane Watson recently used the word bluff in a flash interview. In a joint interview alongside James Faulkner, Dwayne Bravo told the IPL website earlier this season, "Nowadays, batsmen have an idea as to where the bowler will bowl. So a bluff is very important to catch a batsman off guard. Like Jimmy (Faulkner) said earlier, you might look a bit like an idiot when the bluff does not work in your favour."

Watson's point was you cannot afford to telegraph to the batsman with your field what exactly you are going to bowl and then go ahead and bowl that ball every time.

Mohit Sharma can count himself as one of those best finishing bowlers this IPL. He has been using the slower balls to good effect, especially with a yorker added to his arsenal. The game on Sunday was especially made for slower balls. As Kings XI Punjab began to pull Sunrisers Hyderabad back in defense of 179, they kept bowling cutters into the pitch. Starting with the 10th over, the only boundaries hit until the end of the 14th - three of them - came off deliveries bowled at regulation pace. Mind you, even a set David Warner couldn't hit a single slower ball to the fence, and these overs were predominantly filled with slower deliveries.

The asking rate finally crossed 10 at the end of the 14th over. It was clear that slower balls was the way to go now because they were gripping the surface and were impossible to time if the batsmen made any premature movement. In the 15th over, though, Deepak Hooda began to improvise. He shuffled across the stumps, and waited and waited for a slower bouncer from Marcus Stoinis before pulling it over short fine leg, almost like waiting at the net in volleyball before smashing a lob from your team-mate. In the next over, Yuvraj Singh showed he was prepared for the slower balls when he lofted Sandeep Sharma for a huge six over midwicket.

Thanks to those two hits, Sunrisers kept with the asking rate of 10 an over for two overs, but Axar Patel bowled a superb 17th over, including three balls at the new batsman Ben Cutting to take it up to 39 off the last three overs.

Now Kings XI went to perhaps their best bowler of the tournament, Mohit. Thanks to that Axar over, Mohit had again found some breathing space to bowl those slower balls. The field - both third man and fine leg inside the circle - suggested so. We were now expecting the slower ball too, but that is what messes with the bowler's mind. How many slower balls before the batsman starts to expect them and is waiting for them? There were already signs that the batsmen had started to find their way around the slower ones. Also the shorter boundary was leg side for Yuvraj, the man on strike at the start of the 18th over. You still have to show him the field for the slower ball, though.

Now Mohit's trademark slower, the back-of-the-hand legcutter, which is usually effective and is his trusted delivery, can be well under 110kmph. This time Mohit tried the other one: the offcutter, at 128kph, barely a drop from his peak pace of mid-130s. Yuvraj wasn't taken by surprise, the bluff had been called, and a big six was hit. The next ball was at 136kph, just outside off, and Yuvraj steered it in the gap between point and short third man. Now with the pressure gone, Cutting picked the 106kph slower ball later in the over, waited for it, and slugged it between long-on and deep midwicket for four.

The game was over with Mohit not bowling to his field, but to say that he did so without any reason would be to not give him enough credit after he has been doing the job for Kings XI all season long. This was in all likelihood a bluff gone wrong. Perhaps he should have bowled another slower ball before the bluff. Perhaps he should have bluffed with a yorker.

Death bowling is not a science, there are nights when it leaves you with just perhapses, especially with the heavy bats. Sunday night was one such for Mohit.