Is the penultimate tornado superseding the last over thrillers?

With the advent of Twenty20 cricket, the number of last over finishes, as expected, have gone up manifold. In fact, the current IPL season at its halfway stage only has seen more thrilling finishes than the whole of any other previous editions. With the pressure constantly moving northwards, where one wrong move from either the batsman or bowler can prove costly for the team, it becomes more a test of nerves rather than the test of skills. With some of the best finishers in the business like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Micheal Bevan being notorious for leaving it till the very end,the tension even gets to the crowd and makes them involved in the proceedings, creating a frenzied atmosphere in the middle.

But this time around, along with the down to the wire moments, another phenomenon has gripped the IPL – The penultimate over conundrum. While the match seems to be headed for another edge of the seat nail biter, suddenly the action moves a few notches higher and the climax comes early. Massive turnarounds in the last but one over have decided the outcomes of matches on at least four occasions this season.

It all started with the Albie Morkel storm that blew RCB away at the Chepauk in Chennai. Needing 43 off the last two overs, even the staunchest of CSK fans had given up hope. But Morkel turned the game on it head with some clean hitting and a bit of luck, as he smashed a hapless Virat Kohli (who had conceded just 8 in his previous over) all around the park for 28 in one over and eventually Chennai crossed the finish line. Kings XI Punjab, having defeated Mumbai Indians in their own den, were all set to record another victory over them in Mohali. But riding on the back of some courageous and unorthodox stroke play, Robin Peterson and Ambati Rayudu looted 27 off Piyush Chawla’s over and brought the equation down to just five in the final over.

It is not just the batsmen who have been stealing the show. The bowlers too have had their fair share of the penultimate over stardom. Most noticeable was the penultimate over from Morne Morkel against Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur, in which he conceded just three runs against set batsmen and Delhi managed to eke out a win by the smallest of margins – 1 run. Death over specialist Lasith Malinga too, bowled a superb nineteenth over against Pune Warriors (4 runs and one wicket) as Mumbai just about defended a partly 120. India’s Zaheer Khan has had an ordinary tournament so far, but the crafty left-arm seamer almost pulled one back for his side with a remarkably disciplined effort in the penultimate over against a nervy KXIP at Bangalore.

So are these just coincidence or is there a conscious effort to take a stranglehold of the proceedings before it gets too late? Because of their rare nature these may seem to be fluke incidents at first, a closer look tell us that these are actually plans very well executed. While death over specialists were generally believed to have an extraordinary ability to absorb pressure and alert grey cells to assess the situation early, this IPL has provided more fodder to the belief.

The plunder against Kohli, who is certainly a weak link in RCB’s bowling scheme, was a well thought out strategy. With a frontline bowler, Vinay Kumar slated to bowl the final over, Albie Morkel knew he had to take the maximum out of Kohli and did that, albeit with a bit of luck. Even in the Mumbai – KXIP clash in Mohali, for the reverse sweeping Robin Peterson and quick footed Ambati Rayudu, it was natural to go after the spinner Piyush Chawla instead of targeting the seasoned medium pacer Azhar Mahmood.

Even the captains prefer to use their premier bowlers in the penultimate over and have as much cushion as possible for bowlers of lesser ability in the last over. Instead of having to defend just four or five in the last over, it does make sense to unleash a Malinga or Morkel or Steyn and look for breakthroughs, leaving the likes of Umesh Yadav and Munaf Patel to defend ten or twelve in the final over.

Given the volatile nature of the twenty20 games and the pressure cooker environment in which the IPL takes place, one cannot decide exactly when to have the glory moments. While up to a certain extent there is a shrewd plan involved, the key lies in the execution of these plan.

Its not that the Miandadsque last ball effort has gone out of fashion. The likes of Rohit Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary and more recently Dwayne Smith kept the flame flickering for last ball thrillers as they took their sides past the finish line in dramatic circumstances in this edition.

But be it the good old last ball deciders, or the sudden rush of blood in nineteenth over, as long as it provides the edge of the seat moments and entertains, the broadcasters nor the crowd will have complaints.