CHENNAI: One hundred dot balls in 32 overs. It is essentially 52 percent of the 192 legitimate deliveries featured in the aforementioned number of overs in eight games. That is how good Mohammed Siraj has been for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2023 IPL season.
It is not just the dot balls though. It gets better. With 14 wickets, he is the joint-highest wicket-taker for the season with Rashid Khan. In fact, it is almost impossible to see RCB where they are in the points table (5th) without the role Siraj has played so far, especially in the first six overs.
Of the 100 dot balls he has bowled, 72 have come in the powerplay. It means he has bowled 66.7 per cent dot balls in the first six overs when in fact overall numbers suggest that teams have gone harder with the bat in that phase this year than they have done in the past. The dot balls come with seven top-order wickets as well, getting RCB in the contest quite early.
His ability to swing it across to a left-hander and away from a right-hander is well known, but it is the perfection with which he has executed that makes it special. Even more so considering the kind of season he had last year. In 15 games, he took nine wickets at an average of 57.11 at an economy of 10.07. It resulted in abuse on social media, which took a toll on him. He opened up about it in a video shared by the franchise saying the extreme reactions that athletes receive kill their motivation.
However, Siraj hasn’t let it happen. On the field he is motivated more than ever, and more importantly, confident than ever, trusting his skills to do the job, taking the emotions out of the equation. His second over against N Jagadeesan of Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday is a testament to that. Two outswingers upfront to beat the TN batter followed by a shortish delivery and an inswinger. He was swinging it both ways at a sharp pace, something that Brett Lee feels is significant in the number of wickets Siraj has to show.
“He has got genuine pace, he shapes the ball away, he can also angle it back into the right-hander and angle away from the left-handed batter to induce the nick but when you bowl in the middle to the late period (14th or 19th or 20th over), he has got a killer yorker. He absolutely nails his yorkers,” said Lee, who is an expert with Jio Cinema.
The thing about Siraj and RCB is that they rely so heavily on him for early wickets that if it doesn’t happen, they are taken for a ride. It happened on Wednesday as Siraj went wicketless in the powerplay and KKR managed to post 200/5 in 20 overs. He came back to remove Andre Russell with a perfect yorker, finishing with 1/33 - one of the best figures by a pacer on the day, but him having a bad day with the new ball put RCB on backfoot.
