Rahmanullah Gurbaz in action for KKR during IPL 2024 final© X (formerly Twitter)

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has slammed Rajasthan Royals (RR) youngster Riyan Parag for throwing away his wicket in the crucial IPL 2024 Qualifier 2 match against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Friday. Parag scored just six runs off 10 balls as he was dismissed by SRH’s impact substitute Shahbaz Ahmed. Chasing 176, RR did not score a single boundary in 22 balls before the in-form decided to take on Shahbaz. However, Parag top-edged his shot that went straight up to Abhishek at deep mid-wicket.

Gavaskar, who was on commentary duties, was left fuming with Parag’s approach as he suggested that the youngster’s talent was of no use if he wasn’t going to “think”.

“Seriously, seriously? What’s the use of all the talent if you are not going to think? What kind of shot is that, seriously? So much talent. If you don’t have the temperament, it won’t work. So what if you had a few dot balls? You can still make up for it,” Gavaskar was heard as saying on commentary.

Parag’s dismissal proved to be pivotal in the context of the match as SRH sparked an RR collapse, taking three wickets in the space of 15 balls.

The 2008 champions couldn’t recover from the setbacks as SRH won by 36 runs to advance to the final. Shahbaz was the star of the show for SRH as he came in as an impact substitute to score 18 runs and then returned figures of 3-23.

He was named player of the match and SRH skipper Pat Cummins said it was coach Daniel Vettori‘s call to have the all-rounder come in as impact sub.

Earlier Sunrisers, who had racked up record IPL totals of 277 and 287 this season, lacked firepower in their batting until Heinrich Klaasen boosted the score with his fourth fifty of the season.

Rajasthan’s Trent Boult made early inroads when he got Abhishek in the first over and struck twice in the fifth to send back Rahul Tripathi, for 37, and Aiden Markram, for one.

Fast bowler Avesh Khan took two wickets in two balls, prompting Hyderabad, who won the IPL in 2016 under Australia’s David Warner, to bring in Ahmed.

(With AFP Inputs)

Contrary to popular opinion, the much debated ‘Impact Player’ rule has proved to be a bigger nightmare for bowlers compared to the all-rounders, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed said on Friday. Shahbaz has played 12 games this season, scoring 186 runs at a strike-rate of 138 plus but his primary skill which is believed to be left-arm spin hasn’t provided rich dividends with only three wickets coming his way, that too at a below-par economy rate of 10.60.

“Now every team has in total 9 batters, an all-rounder and eight batters. Also the teams look for players, who can strike big from ball one and carry on the momentum till the end. The ‘Impact Player’ rule has affected bowlers more than all-rounders because this gives batters the cushion to play freely,” Shahbaz told PTI videos.

According to Shahbaz, the teams didn’t really understand how to use an ‘Impact Player’ during the inaugural season and as every team got a hang of it, even anchors during batting innings is starting to become obsolete.

“The teams didn’t know much about how to use it (Impact Player) last season. The all-rounders have a reduced role, which means they are getting lesser chance to bowl unlike earlier times when they used to bowl four overs.

“A lot of all-rounders are facing this. now they get to bowl one or two overs, this is true, this is visible to everyone, but I think, the batters who used to anchor games, has also gone down significantly.”

Cummins created pressure-free environment

The Bengal all-rounder was all praise for skipper Pat Cummins, who has been instrumental in keeping the SRH dressing-room stress free which has certainly shown on the on-field performance. SRH have already qualified for the last four stage with 15 points.

“If I talk about myself whenever Pat throws the ball to me, he always backs me. This sort of helps me to soak in pressure well and even if the ball goes to the boundary, he doesn’t say anything and keeps motivating all bowlers.

“He and the coach (Daniel Vettori) have created such an environment that no player in the camp ever feels that there’s any sort of pressure. The players are playing freely, we enjoy playing under his captaincy and that has what helped us to perform well”.

A lesser known fact about Shahbaz is that legendary Virat Kohli gifts him one of his bat every season.

“Virat’s bat is by far the best in terms of quality. His bat has the right balance and the ping is fabulous. In every IPL season, he has gifted me a willow. His bat really holds high value for me.”