While the Robin Uthappa-Shivam Dube batting partnership for Chennai Super Kings grabbed all of the headlines against the Royal Challengers Bangalore -- setting the IPL 2022 season-best total of 216-4 -- it was a 21-year-old mystery spinner who led the charge when the CSK bowlers took to the field in the second half of the game.
CSK's signing up of the little known Maheesh Theekshana for Rs 70 lakhs (Rs 7 million) may well turn out to be the franchise's shrewdest decision at the IPL auction.
His final bowling figures of 4-33 included the scalps of four key batters in the RCB line-up -- Faf Du Plessis, Anuj Rawat, Shahbaz Ahmed and Suyash Prabhudessai.
Of the four mentioned above, perhaps the most vital was that of RCB Captain du Plessis who has been in scintillating form this season and had the potential to give his team the flying start they needed to chase down the mammoth total.
The first blow to a grand RCB comeback were quashed as early as the third over as du Plessis departed for 8 off 9 balls after mis-reading Theekshana's delivery and holing out to Chris Jordan for a simple catch at long-on.
In the last ball of his second over, he dismissed Rawat for 12 off 16 balls. The delivery took Rawat by surprise as it spun inwards and hit him on the pads, plumb in front of the stumps. The umpire raised his finger instantaneously and the DRS confirmed the decision.
On to his third over and IPL debutant Suyash Prabhudesai, who was playing an inspired innings keeping RCB in the tie, found himself bowled when Theekshana's straighter delivery beat the batter's defence and crashed into the stumps.
The rout was complete in the next over following the dismissal of Prabhudessai's strike partner, Shahbaz Ahmed. The duo had been responsible for an inspired resurgence of RCB's innings but just when it seemed as though the youngsters may have changed the script of the tie, Theekshana was back to rattle Shahbaz's stumps with yet another delivery that went straight on and castled the stumps.
In the end, the fact that RCB score 193 and lost by a 23 run margin shows how crucial Theekshana's breakthroughs were in the grander scheme of things.
While franchises now start studying Theekshana's variations to help prepare for coming games and google searches for 'carrom balls' and 'mystery spinners' explode across the T20 universe, it will be interesting to watch how this youngster matures in his rookie season in the IPL.
