It was the shot that liberated Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
When Rajat Patidar strode to the middle in the eleventh over, none of their batsmen — including Phil Salt who had just been dismissed — were in complete command. The heavy outfield was holding up the ball. The hard lengths CSK had hit were creating doubt. The run-rate spiked to 10 one moment and dropped to 8 the next. Nobody seemed to know what a par score was. When Patidar left at the end of the innings, RCB had scored 157 off 56 deliveries — mind-boggling carnage, with Devdutt Padikkal’s and Tim David’s knocks sandwiched in between.
He started it. After taking a single off the first ball he faced, Patidar fronted up to Noor Ahmad. Spin against Patidar is not a favourable match-up. He strikes at 170.30 against tweakers. Has hit more sixes off spin — 46 — than boundaries — 22. In the middle overs he goes at 174.23 against slow bowling, 44 of those 46 sixes coming in that phase. Not even Shreyas Iyer, prominent at No 4 and known as one of the best players of spin in the country, has numbers like that. Even Shivam Dube, who has made a living out of hitting spinners, only comes close.
Chennai should have known. Noor offered a bit of width. Patidar took a forward stride, flicked his wrists and sent it over covers. Two more sixes followed — off Dube and Matt Henry. The first a miscued hook, the second a swing through the line that cleared long-on. Three sixes off his first seven deliveries on a track where every batsman before him was fighting for timing.
Against the pacers he was no less — 165.12 in the middle overs. After Henry, two contrasting ones off Khaleel Ahmed. The first off a low full toss, Ahmed having missed the yorker by centimetres. The second over covers off the same channel. When the middle-over phase ended, Patidar had 40 off 14 at a strike-rate of 285.71.