Joseph’s hard-length mastery pulls the handbrake on CSK’s surge
Late on March 28, less than 72 hours before the start of IPL 2023, Alzarri Joseph was at the Wanderers in Johannesburg winning West Indies a high-scoring T20I series with his maiden T20I five-fer. Almost immediately he flew out to Ahmedabad to link up with the Gujarat Titans. He had one training session before the start of the Gujarat Titans’ title defence on the eve of the game, one that was cut short by a spell of unseasonal late evening rain.
So, Joseph had a reasonable defence for his first over of the season costing three sixes and 18 runs. Possible jet-lag to go on top of a sublime Ruturaj Gaikwad hitting through the line on a belter of a cricket pitch can be a tough combination to overcome. But that is exactly what the 26-year-old managed. In his next three overs, he did not give away even a single boundary, picked up two wickets and conceded just 15 runs. It was just the kind of spell needed to pull the handbrake on Chennai Super Kings, who seemed headed to a total in excess of 200 and beyond the Titans’ reach.
When Joseph began his second over, the Super Kings had 121 on the board with seven overs and seven wickets remaining. Shivam Dube had played just one ball but Gaikwad at the other end was motoring along on 76 off 37. The Titans were being hit off good lengths. Joseph had tried pulling the length back in his first over but got his lines veering away towards Gaikwad’s hips, allowing the batter to use the swivel pull-pickup shot to great effect. The margin for error on the wicket was very low.
