IPL 2025: Vyshak’s full-length zone stumps Titans

Kolkata: Fast bowlers inevitably become a footnote in a game headlined by some blinding hitting from both sides, but this is where Vijaykumar Vyshak stands out.

Subbed in as Impact Player when Gujarat Titans were slowly levelling up with the astronomical asking rate, Vyshak had three overs to make a dent. The outfield was quick, a second new ball was in operation, and dew was setting in. Still, Vyshak did his thing by bowling full and wide.

The scoreboard will say Vyshak conceded only 28 runs in those three overs, expensive by T20 standards but pinching in the context of the game given this was a phase where Titans needed more than 15 per over. Vyshak effectively stemmed the runs with his wide yorkers, putting the target beyond Titans’ reach.

It helped that 15 out of the 18 deliveries Vyshak bowled were to left-handers Sherfane Rutherford and Rahul Tewatia, allowing him to naturally create an angle where the batters would have to chase him. And even if some of those were actually called wide, Vyshak more or less held on to those lines to deny Titans.

“The thought was simple and very clear—make them hit to the off side,” Arshdeep Singh, who bowled the last over for Punjab Kings, said later. “It won’t be easy to hit there. If they hit a good shot, clap, say well played, and execute another one. Really happy for him (Vyshak), he’s putting in the hard yards at practice, and was executing yorkers really well, and the results showed in the game as well.”

Wide yorkers aren’t a new addition to the game but becoming increasingly significant too are the wider yorkers since the new age batters are more prone to shuffling across the stumps.

With the left-handed Marco Jansen taking the ball away from the right-handed Jos Buttler and Vyshak doing the same with Rutherford, Kings had successfully deployed the wide yorker strategy, limiting Titans to only seven boundary hits in the last six overs when the ask was more than double.

The only downside to that strategy is conceding a wide which would call for an extra ball to be bowled. But so consistent were Vyshak, Jansen and Arshdeep in that last phase that even the follow up deliveries on the mark.

“The plan was if you are going to miss, miss on the wider side and not on the stumps,” said Arshdeep. “It does slip a bit with dew around but the plan was just to bowl as wide as possible, even if it slips, it’s a full-toss, it won’t be easy for them to hit, because it’s very far from their reach.”

Jansen and Arshdeep are more experienced performers but for Vyshak to nail that line coming off the bench, that too just four years into his domestic career, points to either hours of practice or just a plain knack for it.

“It’s not easy, you know, coming in as an impact player and delivering those yorkers,” said Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill later. “It’s never easy for someone who’s been on the bench for almost 15 overs. But I think credit to them, the way they bowled yorkers.”