5 min readUpdated: May 8, 2026 08:52 PM IST
Three bowlers. One powerplay. The seam, the speed, the swing – each doing a different job, each doing it well. LSG may not be winning. The same can’t be said about the pace pack.
Mohammed Shami took the new ball in RCB’s chase. The ball angled in, straightened off the deck; Bethell swung across the line. Prince Yadav held the catch at deep backward point. In the second over, seam-up again, Patidar beaten outside off.
“Jis din main bore ho jaaunga – us din main cricket chhod dunga,” (I will quit the day I am bored).
Shami had said on Shubhankar Mishra’s YouTube channel a few weeks before this game. “Records uthake dekh lijiye. IPL mein bhi Indian bowlers ke aaspaas ho koi — phir bhi log kehte hain main T20 ka bowler nahi hoon.” (You can check the records – there may not be many Indian bowlers close to me, yet they say I am not a T20 bowler).
The ball still does what he asks it to. He has taken four wickets in the first over across IPL 2026, more than any other bowler.
Mayank’s fire
Then Mayank Yadav came on in the third over. He is a different proposition – not the seam and the line, but the pace and the hop. He began at 150.1kph, skiddy on a length, cutting off the pitch, Padikkal cutting and missing due to lack of bounce. Then 145kph, short of length, Patidar trying to steer and beaten by the edge. 147.6kph full, clipped away. When the ball didn’t kick up as much as Mayank intended, Patidar was good enough to react – 137.2kph, banged short, pulling it into the square leg fence with one bounce. But when it did rise, Patidar was hopping, unsure where the ball was going, fending rather than punishing. That is what Mayank does – he makes the decision for you.
In his return spell in the ninth over, Patidar solved him – two sixes in consecutive balls, a 101-metre pull, then a swivel pull off 145.6kph that brought up his fifty. The ball hadn’t risen. The over went for 18. Mayank knows this about himself. The bounce is his instrument. When the pitch takes it away, he has less to offer. He is learning.
Story continues below this ad
Young sensation
Prince Yadav is learning something different. Umesh Yadav, watching from the commentary box, pointed to what had changed since last season. The action. Last year, Prince’s hand was closing late, the ball concealed longer, the left hand staying low – it meant the ball moved in, but rarely out. This year, he has come closer to the stumps, the wrist coming through differently, and suddenly got outswing. The same release point, the ball going in or going out. Batters cannot read which one is coming. Last season. Six matches. Three wickets. This season. 10 matches. 16 wickets.
Irfan Pathan, breaking it down on his YouTube channel, saw it happen in real time. A few days before this game, Prince had said he wanted to play the 50-over World Cup with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma — that it was his dream. Days later, here was Kohli at the crease. “Virat Kohli ne jo pehli gend kheli — solid defence kiya tha. Unhe sirf ache se Prince ko khelna tha. He knew the talent of the bowler.” (The first ball that Kohli played – he defended solidly. All he wanted was to play Prince well).
Kohli watchfully defended the first ball. A slip was in. A close view of the ball says much. Just before release, the seam is tilted towards first slip, fingers cutting across it. The middle finger lifts last off the ball, that press tilting the seam back into Kohli. The ball didn’t swing. It skidded. Off-stump uprooted.
“Virat Kohli had set himself up for the outswinger. Hence, the bat was a touch outside, the head was outside, and hence there was the bat-pad gap,” Irfan says. “The ball left the hand differently, and did something different after pitching. High-quality ball, one of the best of the season.”
Story continues below this ad
“I was talking to Virat bhaiya,” Prince said afterwards, “and he only told me – as long as it’s moving around off a length, stick to that length.” The man he dismissed for a duck had given him the blueprint. Three wickets in the match. Shami had one. Between them, Mayank kept the pressure on even when the boundary count against him rose.
Six consecutive defeats hadn’t dismantled this attack. If anything, they were only now finding their shape – the seam, the speed, the swing, each doing its job.
