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Turning Point: Vaibhav Arora's Bowling

By SHAILESH KARKERA
April 04, 2022 07:42 IST

IMAGE: Punjab Kings players rush to congratulate Vaibhav Arora's dismissal of Chennai Super Kings Opener Robin Uthappa at the Brabourne stadium, Sunday, April 3, 2022. Photograph: BCCI

Defending champions Chennai Super Kings were set 180 by Punjab Kings to chase and based on the trends in the current IPL season, the team batting second are the ones who usually end up winning.

The CSK batting line-up reveals a wealth of experience from all around the world of T20 cricket, but it all came undone all thanks to young debutant Punjab seamer Vaibhav Arora, who finished with figures of 2/21.

The 24 year old made the new ball swing both ways and the CSK batters had a hard time guessing which way the ball would move.

In his very first over, delivering to Robin Uthappa, the ball swung viciously and Arora almost landed his first IPL wicket when the batter edged the ball to Shikhar Dhawan at first slip, but it fell just short.

Uthappa was gone though at the start of Arora's second over as he hit a leading edge off yet another swinging delivery and the ball landed in Mayank Agarwal's hands at mid-off.

Moeen Ali was Arora's next victim; in his next over the England international was made to look rather amateurish as he deflected the ball back onto the stumps to be dismissed for a duck.

With two CSK stalwarts gone, their chase slowly began to lose steam and by the end of Arora's spell, they were struggling at 36/4, needing 145 runs from 78 balls.

It was a masterstroke to have Arora finish off his quota early on as it kept the momentum in Punjab's corner and kept CSK under pressure at all times.

 
SHAILESH KARKERA

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