Krunal Pandya spent the first half of his match-winning innings on Sunday night looking like a man who would rather have been anywhere else in the world than the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
He was going nowhere at 9 off 14 balls when he miscued Kuldeep Yadav to short cover in the eighth over, and threw his head back in utter desperation at the scenario unfolding. Mitchell Starc had put him on his backside with a sharp bumper, and Dushmantha Chameera then cracked him on the helmet with a short ball.
As the asking rate climbed, he shimmied outside off stump, trying to scoop Mukesh Kumar over short fine leg, and attempted a late adjustment by opening the bat-face as the bowler followed him. The ball skewed into the off side, and dribbled towards point. Krunal had 25 off 28, and looked utterly stuck; Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) needed 84 off 46.
Barely an hour later, Krunal was picking up his Player-of-the-Match award after grinding his way straight from second gear into sixth. He hit 48 off his last 19 balls, including consecutive sixes off Mukesh: the first over long leg, the next over long-off. Every miscue landed safely: he was dropped at deep midwicket, sliced one over cover and squeezed another through mid-off.
If Krunal's innings was a grind, then his luck at the back end felt like a reward for his staying power. He showed off his expansive side, too: he launched Kuldeep over wide mid-off for a towering six, and hit Mukesh for back-to-back boundaries on either side of the wicket: one flicked through square leg, the other steered away through point.
His promotion to No. 5 was the result of an early collapse: he walked in at 26 for 3 after four overs, allowing RCB to hold their power-hitters back. "My role was pretty clear: if we lose three early wickets, I can go in and make sure that we stitch a partnership [together]," Krunal said. His stand with Virat Kohli was worth 119 off 84 balls; on a slow, old-school Delhi pitch, no other pair in the match put on as many as 40.
"When Virat is at the other end, it's always quite easy," Krunal said. "I'll give a lot of credit to him as well. The first 20 balls were quite scratchy from me, but he kept backing me. He was like, 'No, you'll do it; just look to hit pockets.' Eventually, when I got into a groove, it helped. But a lot of credit goes to him as well."
This was only Krunal's second half-century in the IPL, a record 3269 days since his first, back in 2016. This was his latest command performance of a remarkable debut season for RCB, showing why he was identified as a key target at November's auction: he has taken 13 wickets, more than any other fingerspinner in the league, and the most that he has ever managed in a single campaign - even with a minimum of four matches left.
Krunal has particularly thrived away from the Chinnaswamy: RCB have won six out of six away from home, and he has been the backbone of that run. He has 11 wickets on the road and has only once conceded more than 30 runs in his four overs: that came in a spell of 4 for 45 at the Wankhede, closing out a tight win over Mumbai Indians at the death.
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But this was the best performance yet, his 73 not out coming after another miserly spell with the ball. He bowled brilliantly to Faf du Plessis, following him whenever he tried to create room by shimmying outside leg stump and having him caught at long-on. He conceded a single boundary, a six over midwicket, and followed it up with a 117kph bouncer to Axar Patel.
RCB knew when they signed Krunal that they could rely on his defensive skills. They may not have realised that he would become such a potent attacking weapon for them, particularly in the middle overs. His economy rate (8.62) has never been higher in an IPL season, but his strike rate (a wicket every 14.7 balls) has never been so low.
"I've always been an economical bowler," Krunal said. "This is my tenth season. As a bowler, I've always wanted to be one step ahead, and this season, I've worked a lot on my bowling. If you see the variation of speed and knowing batsmen's strengths, [I am] just using [that] to my advantage. I'm just glad that it's working in my favour, and I want to keep my head down."
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Krunal is the sort of player that RCB have very rarely picked in their squads: an experienced Indian player, capped internationally without being a genuine superstar, and a reliable performer in a clearly-defined role. "In our recruitment, we wanted to add players of that ilk and experience: guys who can stand up under pressure," Mo Bobat, their director of cricket, said.
RCB are the IPL's perennial nearly men, the team who have promised much without ever quite delivering come the end of May. Their hope this season is that the value of experience will become evident as the season wears on: in Krunal, they have a three-time IPL champion who has seen every situation that the league has to offer.
"A win like today, where we stuttered a little bit but we got there, was a good example of the personality and togetherness of our team," Bobat said. "We're in a good place right now. We've played pretty good cricket all season, but we've got to a point now where the character shines through, and you want that at the business end of the competition."
When RCB travel to Lucknow, Krunal's old home ground, on May 9, they will have the opportunity to create a small piece of IPL history by becoming the first franchise with a 100% record away from home in the group stages. Two and a half weeks further down the line, Krunal will hope to have helped them achieve something far bigger than that.