Tale of two left-arm swingers

Irfan Pathan and Chaminda Vaas: both are left-arm swing bowlers whose stock ball is the one that bends back into the right-hander, both rarely operate above 130 kmh, and both are currently out of favour with their national sides. On Sunday, both were entrusted by their captains with the final over of matches that would determine two IPL semi-finalists. If Irfan defended 16, Chennai Super Kings would get knocked out. If Vaas failed to defend 17, Deccan Chargers wouldn’t make the final four. The similarities ended there.

Irfan attempted to bowl a yorker the first ball but MS Dhoni was too good, moving deep into his crease to convert the length and driving to the cover boundary. The next three deliveries, however, were of hittable length and Dhoni launched second for one of the biggest sixes Dharamsala will see. The third disappeared over long-on again. Match over with two balls to spare and Irfan’s poor lengths had helped eliminate Kolkata Knight Riders.

A couple of hours later Vaas was facing a similar challenge. He had been drafted back into Deccan’s XI in place of Ryan Harris. Some will argue that he should have never been dropped. Vaas’ opponent, Paul Collingwood, may have been a less destructive batsman than Dhoni but the stakes were higher. Punjab had only been playing for pride against Chennai; travel-weary Deccan had strung together four wins on the trot to get to where they were – one good over away from the semi-finals.

Vaas’ first ball was a yorker and Ashish Nehra gave strike to Collingwood. Knowing Collingwood favours the deep midwicket boundary, Vaas cut the second ball across the right-hander from over the wicket and beat the batsman’s heave across the line. Delhi now needed a boundary a ball and the Kotla grew quieter. The next was a perfect yorker, one that thudded into Collingwood’s pads. He ran a leg bye, leaving Nehra on strike with 15 to get off three. Deccan were through, and Vaas had done plenty to retain his spot in the semi-final.