If you are Deepak Chahar, your morning may not show the entire day. After castling Dhawan off the first ball of the match, Chahar’s flight came crashing down and the cause of that crash, as the black box would suggest was an attempted back of the hand slower delivery that went horribly wrong.
Known for his impeccable control with the new white ball, Chahar provided the perfect curtain raiser to the qualifier by disturbing Shikhar Dhawan’s poles. It was not one of his best deliveries, Dhawan actually brought about his own downfall by going for a booming backfoot punch off a delivery which was a bit too close to his body.
The sunlight that Chahar saw long after the sun had actually set in the Wankhede Stadium after getting Dhawan for a golden duck, was diminished quickly by the Sunrisers captain Kane Williamson, who creamed Chahar for a hat-trick of fours through the onside.
It all went downhill for the right-arm medium pacer from then on and in the sixth over the innings – Chahar’s third – it reached a rather horrific climax with Chahar bowling arguably the worst ball of IPL 2018.
It was an attempted back of the hand slower ball that slipped out of his hand and flew over batsman Shakib Al Hasan’s head, reaching Dhoni on just one bounce. Miraculously, the umpire Marais Erasmus adjudged it a dead ball, much to the amazement of the batsman and the commentators.
Chahar ended up with figures of 1 for 31 on a night when Sunrisers scored below seven runs per over