CHENNAI: When Jamie Overton came on to bowl on Sunday afternoon against Lucknow Super Giants at the MA Chidamabram Stadium, the scoreboard read 94/2 in seven overs. Soon, it would go up to 112/2 in nine, threatening Chennai Super Kings' chances of winning at home once again.
Enter Overton. In his second over, he would dismiss Josh Inglis (85 off 33) and Rishabh Pant (15 off 12). It put the brakes on the scoring. He would eventually finish with 3/32 in four overs, helping Chennai stay in the game before Urvil Patel sealed the contest. "I think my role is to just come into the middle, mainly in the middle. For me then, it's just trying to do the simple things really well and get the top of the stumps. I've done a lot of work with Eric Simons trying to focus on my lines," Overton said after the match.
It has been the story of the season for CSK — Overton coming in middle-overs, bowling hard lengths and taking wickets. Or rather it had been. The all-rounder, who had been crucial to CSK's revival in the last few weeks with 136 runs at 158.13 strike rate and 14 wickets at 8.89 economy, has been ruled out of the season at a time the team needed him the most.
Overton, who is understood to have suffered a thigh injury during the game against Delhi Capitals before undergoing scans, is now on his way back to England for further scans and assessment. And replacing him would be South African all-rounder Dian Forrester — who smashed 132 runs at 171.42 SR and took two wickets in six games for Rawalpindiz in the Pakistan Super League last month.
While Forrester is expected to provide much-needed impetus to the lower-middle order, Overton's injury adds to the long list of Chennai players who have unfortunately missed games. It started with Nathan Ellis before the season. Spencer Johnson, who replaced fellow Australian and is on a comeback trail after a long stress fracture lay-off, is yet to play a game. Dewald Brevis missed a few due to a side strain. Khaleel Ahmed was ruled out early and so was Ayush Mhatre. There is Ramakrishna Ghosh who got injured in his first-ever IPL game. Then comes the biggest name of all — MS Dhoni. The former skipper did not start due to calf strain, and head coach Stephen Fleming said that he got injured again due to training. While there is no clear update on where he stands in terms of game-readiness, Dhoni hasn't taken the field so far this season.
Amidst all this, Overton emerged as the hero for the five-time winners. Even when they lost, he was there in the end, reducing the margin with the bat. And when they won, he provided the crucial breakthroughs. He took a four-fer to hand their first points against Delhi Capitals and never looked back. In the six wins, Overton has had a massive role to play in at least five. Such was his impact that he had already become the crowd favourite at Chepauk.
Now, his absence has left a massive hole in the middle for Chennai at a time when they need at least two wins in three games. They next play Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow where Overton could have been a handful for the hosts on the black soil surfaces. Even in Ahmedabad, the pitches this season have had help for pacers, something Overton would have made use of in the middle-overs. While Anshul Kamboj has delivered beyond expectations with both new ball and in the death overs, Super Kings will face a litmus test in the middle-phase. They have Noor Ahmad and Akeal Hosein, but that is only eight overs. Shivam Dube has not been at his best all through the season too.
Who is going to be the person Ruturaj Gaikwad turns to when he needs a breakthrough? Is it going to be Johnson, Forrester or someone else? For a team riddled with injury concerns, Super Kings will need to find the heroes to push themselves in the next few games for them to finish in the top four. Can they? The next few days will tell more.