3 min readChennaiUpdated: Mar 8, 2026 09:25 PM IST
Right through this T20 World Cup, New Zealand had done something extraordinary. Rather their spinners. Sans any mystery in them, the finger-spinners relied on other variations and key among them has been the wide line outside off-stump. Often delivered with slow pace, they have made batsmen reach out to them and has invariably provided them with wickets. It is a line that batsmen around the world are least prepared for.
On Sunday, having made quite a few tactical errors, New Zealand’s quicks too experienced how hard that line is. As former Australian pacer Glenn McGrath revealed last week to this newspaper, it is not an easy line to bowl because the margin of error is so thin. For a large period when Abhishek Sharma went about launching himself for the first time this T20 World Cup, the pacers tried this line. They would stock up the off-side field and open large vacant spaces on the leg-side.
The idea was good, but the execution wasn’t. Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Jacob Duffy would all falter in bowling that line, as they knew that even if they erred slightly, they were going to be punished.
Abhishek, the daring batsman he is, would step across and give his all. He would even sky the ball high a couple of times, but with no fielders deep on the leg-side, chances went begging. That wide-of- off-stump line was hardly working for the Black Caps and the eight wides from the pacers stood as a testament to it.
Even skipper Mitchell Santer, a fine exponent of that particular line, struggled to stem the flow of boundaries, until Rachin Ravindra showed them the way.
He may not have had the best of tournaments with the bat, but with the ball he is the high-flying Kiwi. Having announced his arrival as a prodigy to watch out for when India last hosted a World Cup (50 overs) in 2023, Rachin’s evolution has been rather fringe in T20s. But through this tournament, with the ball he has been doing the simple things right. Being the weak link, oppositions have tried to go extra hard against him and it is what Abhishek tried to do.
Off the first ball he delivered, which would have ended up as a wide if he had let it go, Abhishek tried to give his all and ended up under-edging to wicketkeeper Tim Seifert, who didn’t get up too quick, just waited and converted a half-chance into a catch.
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Before the final, Rachin had 11 wickets and right through this World Cup has been the one who has provided key breakthroughs. That he has operated at an economy rate of 6.86 should show how he has flown under the radar. But normal services soon resumed with Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan punishing him later.
