Shivam Dube supports his ability to fight against spin to the very end. As a result, it was impressive but not particularly surprising when he hit Sai Kishore for two consecutive sixes off the opening two balls of his innings.
It was a demonstration of Dube’s ability as a spin hitter as well as the accuracy with which a disciplined bowler like Kishore can be picked apart without running the risk of crossing the boundary, to identify the length so early and target two distinct parts of the field: long-on and deep Dafabet Apps. But Kishore wasn’t by himself.
Given his remarkable strike rate of 162.56 against slow bowling, it’s a good betway bet to pit spinners against Dube. Gill had no choice but to take a gamble with Rashid Khan, if he had to.
When Khan saw Dube’s first ball fly round the wicket, he was tempted to torment him with a delivery that looped. However, Dube was up to the challenge, leaning in with his head steady, descending with a powerful backlift, and clearing the long way with a tremendous six.
Dube had faced spin only once in his 23-ball innings before. Additionally, with good cause. The Chennai Super Kings have attempted to slip Dube in the middle overs, when spinners typically bowl more, because data matchups advised challenging Dube with quick bowlers, particularly with the short ball. There was growing concern that Dube might become even more trapped once the two-bouncer-per-over regulation was implemented this season.
Rummy Perfect were about to experience a startling turnabout at this point. One could mistakenly believe that the Chepauk surface was playing fairly or that the Australian batsman was relatively inexperienced in the IPL when he swiped Spencer Johnson for a four to fine-leg before dragging him over long-leg for a six.
However, those blockbusters were genuinely produced by Dube’s conviction. Additional evidence of this was shown when Dube guided a short fine-leg for four off of Mohit Sharma with a banged-in, slower delivery. A second, shorter, slower delivery, back-of-the-hand, was made over long-off for a six, this time at 101.6 kph. The Titans had no clear plan.