Dhawan and Williamson come to the party on a night when Pant’s genius subdued SRH’s bowling might

There’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar, one of the best T20 bowlers, perhaps the best pacer at the death, twice purple cap winner, master of deception. But he can falter sometimes. And, if that happens, there’s Sandeep Sharma, who’s sort of on the Bhuvneshwar mould (less fiery, more shrewd), who before the start of the Sunrisers Hyderabad-Delhi Daredevils game on Thursday, had an economy rate below six. Sunrisers pace attack also features Siddarth Kaul, with his headband and all, who’s improved vastly this season.

Then, there are the spinners. Shakib Al Hasan, the wily, experienced Bangladeshi, ranked No 3 in the list of T20 all-rounders in international cricket. And, finally, that man, Rashid Khan, with a cherubic face, who comes all the way from Afghanistan to torment the best batsmen in T20s, everywhere, anytime (okay, almost anytime).

This super-talented assemblage can do pretty much anything in the realm of IPL cricket. Hell, they even defended a sub-120 score this season against the mighty Mumbai Indians. They do not collectively fail... unless a freakish force of nature acts on them.

This season, they had witnessed two such occurrences: Ambati Rayudu and Mahendra Singh Dhoni on the 22nd of April and Chris Gayle on the 19th. On both occasions, Sunrisers lost.

The third one, the most destructive of them, they witnessed on Thursday night. In the form of Rishabh Pant.

The angry young Pant

Rishabh Pant blew away the Sunrisers’ bowling attack. 63 balls. 15 fours. 7 sixes. 128 runs of carnage. 43 off those pillaged off Bhuvneshwar’s 11 deliveries. And, 27 off Rashid’s 13. Unstoppable, untouchable, unbeaten.

But before the storm, there was no calm. There was confusion. There were mix ups. There were runouts. A couple of them. Both because of Pant.

In the eighth over, bowled by Sandeep Sharma, he’d inside-edged a delivery to the keeper. He took off for the run, his skipper Shreyas Iyer, too, rushed to the strikers’ end. But after realising that the ball’s with the keeper, Pant opted against taking the run. The keeper, Sreevats Goswami, threw the ball to Sandeep. Iyer turned around and ran with hopes diminishing and saw the bails being dislodged by the bowler.

Six overs later, he ran out a well-set Harshal Patel in a similar fashion. Harshal, the rest of the Delhi team, the fans watching on the ground, those following it online/TV, could have been angry at Pant. But none were angrier at him than himself.

Maybe there was guilt. Maybe there was desperation to right the wrongs. There was a burden. He needed catharsis. He yelled. But that alone didn’t help perhaps. Definitely didn’t help his team much. So, he channelised the fire within and used it to manufacture shots that made even Bhuvneshwar Kumar look helpless.

In the last over of Delhi Daredevils’ innings, in which Bhuvneshwar was taken apart for 26 runs (two fours and three sixes) one witnessed not violence but the genius of Pant.

Here’s what happened in the second ball of that over. Bhuvneshwar ran in, over the wicket, and delivered a ball, which was travelling close to 140 kilometers per hour. It pitched a little short of a good length, middle and off stump line, and moved away. Pant, seeing the ball’s trajectory, got into a half-squat position even before it pitched. Then, after the ball took off, he kept his bat ready to launch the ball over the short third-man. It rolled over to the boundary. This shot isn’t his routine, it’s part of his batting rejuvenation.

The rest of the runs in that over came off another scoop, a pull over fine leg ropes, a one-handed six past long on and a ferocious hit to deep-midwicket off a full toss.

So, what happens when Sunrisers’ bowling unit fails collectively? This question, the team hadn’t answered and was even concerned about ahead of the play-offs. On Thursday, this was answered by Kane and Shikhar.

The Kane and Shikhar show

Eleven balls into the second innings, walked in Kane Williamson, the mild-mannered genius from New Zealand. And, with him he brought, as he always does, a sense of serenity, steadiness and reassurance.

Sunrisers, in the absence of David Warner, have relied heavily on Williamson. And, Williamson has rarely let them down. He had made five fifties made before the game against Daredevils. The sixth was in demand on Thursday night.

But the target wasn’t one that Williamson could single-handedly get. He needed support that he’s rarely got from his batsmen this season. After his injury (against Mumbai Indians in Sunrisers’ second match), Shikhar Dhawan had crossed 20 only once in seven games. But, after the departure of Alex Hales, Williamson would’ve wished his batting partner found form in his home ground.

And, the back-to-back boundaries in the fifth over bowled by Trent Boult indicated that Dhawan was on his way to regaining what he lost in that Mumbai match. The first boundary – a four – he scored by picking a length ball outside off and lashing it over mid on. The second one – a six – was a result of reading Boult well: Dhawan picked the slow one outside off and smashed it over long on.

But a rampage was not needed. All the Sunrisers needed was a boundary per over and singles. And from the fourth over (an over after Williamson’s arrival), Sunrisers ensured they hit at least one boundary per over.

When Pant batted, one could feel the runs getting pillaged. There were big overs. Consecutive boundaries. Random spurts of yelling. Catharsis. Expletives. Excitement. With Williamson in the middle, you could watch Sunrisers bat, leaning back on the chair, playing a Vivaldi composition.

And, there was Dhawan, punching and muscling the ball, trying to outshine his junior (Pant) from Delhi.

This contrasting combination worked, Sunrisers won, Delhi were knocked out. And, Williamson, after accomplishing the task of taking his team to the playoffs just removed his helmet and shook hands with his batting partner and proceeded for the other post-match formalities.