Deepak Chahar stood with his arms akimbo at the end of his follow-through. The exasperation was writ large on his face. Abhishek Sharma mistimed a slap off a length ball just wide of cover-point rushing to his left. It was the third half-chance Chahar had created in three overs. That was apart from the dropped catch off the first ball of the match.
There are expectations of players in this sport. One of those is that the swing bowlers must bowl fuller lengths with the brand-new ball. That is perhaps why Mumbai Indians (MI) like to open the bowling with Chahar and Trent Boult in IPL 2025. It is for them to extract whatever little swing is available with the new ball. So, logic dictated that they would try and counter the threat of Travis Head and Abhishek by moving the new ball both ways. But MI had different ideas.
In the first three overs of their match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Mumbai, Chahar and Boult didn't go in search of swing and bowled just three full deliveries. Chahar started the game with a length ball angled across Abhishek from over the wicket. Abhishek, as is his wont, dashed down the track and got a thick outside edge that burst through Will Jacks' hand at first slip. Head then looked to whip a length ball through the leg side and almost popped a catch to midwicket. Abhishek, too, nearly did the same in Chahar's next over.
As per ESPNcricinfo logs, 14 of MI's first 18 legal balls were either on a good length, short of good length or short. Result? SRH with 22 for 0 with one dropped chance and two near-chances. The pitch, described "tacky" by Michael Clarke, wasn't conducive to stroke-play from get-go. Hitting shots down the ground was difficult. Travishek found success in each of the two fixtures against MI last year, and they specifically chose it to nullify the threat of SRH's hard-hitting line-up that had arrived at the Wankhede on the back of a 246-run chase. What's more, they also decided to resort to slower deliveries in the first six overs itself.
Jasprit Bumrah, brought on in the fourth over, began with an offcutter outside off that Abhishek swung and missed at. That was one of the plenty of misses Travishek had inside the powerplay. While Bumrah did mix his lengths by slipping in a yorker in his first over itself, he predominantly bowled fast offspin, using the cutters generously to deny Travishek what they desired.
When pace was on offer, Abhishek was at ease. He hit three fours in Chahar's third over - all by sashaying down the track and hitting over covers - which ended with that half-chance off a 120.6kph length ball that frustrated the MI bowler. It seemed Abhishek had carried his luck from the previous outing to the Wankhede.
They made room to go over off, got inside the line to play the pull, used their feet to try and put the bowlers off their lengths. None of it worked. At the end of the powerplay, SRH were 46 for 0. It was SRH's lowest score in a wicketless powerplay since 2022, when they scored 42 for 0 against Gujarat Titans. Travishek had 15 not-in-control shots in that phase. Even though MI had not managed an early breakthrough, they successfully tied down arguably one of the most dangerous opening pairs in the last couple of seasons.
"When Deepak bowled, a couple of balls stuck [on the pitch] and we realised change of pace will be useful," captain Hardik Pandya said after MI's four-wicket win. "As soon as we figured that out we were backing that and with the same intent, we mixed it up. Slower balls, even if it's gripping, if you keep doing it again and again, batters can line you up. We smartly executed yorkers in the middle phase and they were not able to get the rhythm."
That pressure MI built in the powerplay came to their aid in the middle overs. Jacks reaped rewards of the squeeze to run away with two wickets, including that of Head, and emerged saviour to a shrinking breed. While SRH's reliance on Travishek is an open secret, MI did not let that come their way despite a 59-run opening partnership. Nor did they let the skewed dimensions - the square boundaries were 60m and 67m - affect them. Bumrah played a vital part in ensuring SRH were always kept in a leash. He bowled two overs inside the powerplay and one at the death, where he slipped in a low full toss to bowl Heinrich Klaasen, and conceded just the one boundary in his spell.
"The feedback from the batsmen was that the wicket was dead. So, the value for shots wasn't quite there," SRH head coach Daniel Vettori said. "Every time the slower one came, it was difficult to get your power on it. Therefore, there were a lot of singles. The way Boult bowled to that small boundary, he defended it with superb yorkers.
"We got away with a lot in the powerplay, we were a little bit lucky. We understood how difficult it was. To come away from the powerplay with 46 for none was something we were happy with. Mumbai read the conditions exceptionally well. After the first few overs, they relied on the slower balls. Slower balls are effective, but it is mainly effective because of their execution."
In an interview with the host broadcaster during the match, MI batting coach Kieron Pollard termed Travishek a "one dimensional, hard-hands sort of batsmen" for whom off-pace deliveries could work. MI's focused planning and execution delivered them the desired result. Even if it had a few frustrating moments on the way.