IPL 2022: Aakash Chopra says Punjab Kings' Arshdeep Singh has been the best death bowler

Aakash Chopra reckons Punjab Kings' (PBKS) Arshdeep Singh has been the standout bowler at the death in IPL 2022 thus far.

Arshdeep returned figures of 1/23 in his four overs in last night's Indian Premier League encounter against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). He conceded just eight runs in the penultimate over of the match when the defending champions required 35 runs off the last two overs.

While reflecting on the Punjab Kings' defense of the 188-run target in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra was all praise for Arshdeep, saying:

"You have to focus on Arshdeep's bowling as much as MS Dhoni's batting, how well he is bowling. Whether Hardik Pandya is standing there or MS Dhoni, he doesn't get scared against anyone. He doesn't go away from his game plans at all. In my opinion, he has been absolutely stellar."

The former India cricketer also placed Arshdeep on a high pedestal in terms of his death bowling in IPL 2022. Chopra elaborated:

"You have Lockie Ferguson, Shami, Bumrah, Kagiso Rabada - you get all of them together, Arshdeep Singh is doing the best death bowling at the moment. He keeps bowling the yorkers one after the other at one place, he uses that angle."

Arshdeep conceded a total of just 14 runs in the two overs he bowled at the death for the Punjab Kings yesterday. It put CSK behind the eight ball as they required almost 12 runs per over at that stage.

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"Rabada's over was also important" - Aakash Chopra on the 18th over bowled by the Punjab Kings pacer

Kagiso Rabada dismissed Ambati Rayudu and conceded only six runs in the 18th over [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra also had words of praise for Kagiso Rabada and Mayank Agarwal's captaincy. He observed:

"He (Arshdeep) bowled a very good over and left a lot of runs for the last over - 27 runs. Rabada's over was also important, Mayank's captaincy was also very good, he took the game deep."

The reputed commentator spoke about the probable reason for Rahul Chahar not bowling the last over for the Punjab Kings. Chopra explained:

"27 runs in the last over had never been scored. The most in IPL history was 24, that too was scored by Dhoni against Axar Patel and perhaps that's why Rahul Chahar had an over left but the captain didn't go towards him."

Chopra pointed out that Rishi Dhawan held his nerve towards the end to take the Punjab Kings across the finish line. He elaborated:

"When Rishi Dhawan comes to bowl - first ball half-tracker, six. I said he is gone. The second ball was wide and the pressure increased even more. But then a good yorker, then an attempt to hit, the catch was held in the deep and that was it."

Dhawan bowled an excellent yorker on the second delivery, which MS Dhoni could only play straight back to the bowler. Although the Punjab Kings all-rounder's next delivery was down the leg side, the former CSK skipper could not time his attempted big shot and only managed to find Jonny Bairstow at deep mid-wicket.