Siuu went Siraj. It had been an eventful over – the fifth of the first innings. He could have had Phil Salt run out all by himself but missed by a whisker. He then saw the ball being smashed out of the ground, forcing for it to be changed.
Siraj wasn’t happy with the replacement ball that came in and the umpires had to coax the Gujarat Titans players to get going as they mulled around complaining. They had good reason to feel a little peeved for the ball that had gone out of the ground then had otherwise worked magically for the Titans in the PowerPlay, and particularly so for Siraj. He had seen one skid past Devdutt Padikkal, rapped Rajat Patidar on the pad and was increasingly finding his rhythm until that six and the ball change.
Although a little peeved, Siraj had his eyes on the ball with a full 144kph ball that beat Salt and sent the stumps clattering. Siuu went Siraj, and silenced the RCB crowd that had once cheered their hearts out for this very gimmick when he was donning their colours. He had given them enough reason to. Particularly in Powerplays on an unforgiving ground for bowlers, Siraj had held his own as the numbers below tell.
Siraj bowling in Overs 1-6 in IPL since 2023
At Chinnaswamy:14 matches, 12 wickets at 16.25, SR: 15.5, ER: 6.29
Other venues:17 matches, 7 wickets at 43.28, SR: 30, ER: 8.65
After being left out of their retentions, RCB had also chosen not to exercise a Right to Match card when Siraj was picked up for INR 12.25 crore by the Titans. And so Siraj admitted to being a little emotional on returning to play against the team he had been part of for seven seasons previously.
“I thought, you know, he bowled an outstanding spell there with the new ball. His lines were really tight, his lengths were good, and he threatened the stumps a lot. So good on him,” said head coach Andy Flower with a wide smile after the game.
It could not be anything but bittersweet. For RCB, had done all their auction picks in a bid to get a bowling attack that could be well suited for the conditions. The dynamics of previous auctions had swung in such a way that they now couldn’t hold on to two of the highest wicket-takers at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. So Flower was now left to just admiring it from the other side and wishing Siraj well even after the damage he had inflicted on his team inside the powerplay.
But with the batting depth that they had acquired, RCB were still able to ‘scrap’ their way through the middle overs until another spell short-circuited their plans.
