CHENNAI: Rishabh Pant. Shimron Hetmyer. Shreyas Iyer. Marcus Stoinis. Axar Patel. In terms of batting, these five are Delhi Capitals' oxygen, the side's engine room. On Saturday, Varun Chakravarthy asphyxiated Delhi by accounting for all five in a spell that showed why he was given the moniker of a 'mystery spinner' ahead of the 2019 IPL auctions.
He didn't have the greatest of debut IPL seasons. In his only match in 2019, Sunil Narine took him for 24 runs off his first over. He only bowled two more overs and Kings XI didn't play him again. Seventeen months later, with Narine bowling from the other end, Chakravarthy showcased his box of tricks in what turned out to be the IPL's 21st five-wicket haul.
Bowling in T20 cricket is a matter of understanding angles, protecting the short boundaries and making the opposition play to your strengths. All the batsmen who perished tried to clear the boundary, but went against the spin. The Tamil Nadu bowler, who has several variations, backed himself by bowling the googly. Even though the batsmen had no problems picking him, they were either targetting the short boundaries on the leg side or intent on clearing their front leg to go downtown.
The end result? Pant caught at fine leg after a top-edged sweep. Hetmyer caught at the long-on boundary. Iyer caught at long-on. Soinis caught at long-off on the boundary. Axar tried to biff him over covers but lost his stumps. The smile was writ large on the engineer's face as he became the first Kolkata bowler since Narine (2012) to pick up five wickets. His bag of wickets helped the team beat the second-placed side by 59 runs to cement fourth place in the table, after Kolkata scored 194/6.
The 29-year-old even mocked Iyer after he dismissed him. After the match, Chakravarthy said this was the wicket that gave him maximum joy. "This is surreal," he said. "The last few games, I didn't get wickets. I wanted to get one or two today, but thank god I got five. I enjoyed Shreyas Iyer's wicket the most. I was bowling to the shorter boundary so I had to attack the stumps."
What's even more incredible is Chakravarthy is top of the bowling charts for a team that has the likes of Pat Cummins and Narine. He leads the franchise in wickets (12) and is second best behind Lockie Ferguson in economy (7.05) and average (23.50).
For a team that was so fractured coming into the game, Chakravarthy has shown them the blueprint for success. Not a surprise considering he used to work as an architect — something he namechecked after the match — before he jumped streams.