Sandeep bowled a defining spell in the death overs against Lucknow Super Giants ©BCCI/IPL
Whether Charles Darwin's theory reached Sandeep Sharma or not, the 30-year-old part-haired, genial-paced seamer is aware that in T20 cricket, it is about the survival of the fittest.
At the start of the 17th over, bowling only his second of the innings, Sandeep started out with a wide yorker to KL Rahul, who went chasing and miscued it to sweeper cover. "If I am bowling with a new ball, then I will never start the first ball on the wide line. The ball should finish in the line of stumps," said Rajasthan Royals' Sandeep, emphasising on his evolution as a death-over bowler.
It proved to be a game-changing over. After being reduced to 22 for 3 in the first four overs of the 194-run chase, Rahul, Nicholas Pooran and Deepak Hooda's counterattack had brought the equation down to a reasonable 49 off the last four overs for Lucknow Super Giants. However, using his slower balls to good effect, Sandeep forced the batters to hit against the breeze, and effectively curtailed their momentum.
Rahul's dismissal followed by a flurry of slower balls that Pooran and Marcus Stonis struggled to put away enabled Royals to pull the pace of the chase back. A tight over by Ashwin further piled the pressure on LSG, and Sandeep continuing with his slew of slower balls and deliveries outside off flipped the contest on its head.
For the last decade, Sandeep has been one of the constant presence in the IPL, having offered his services to Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad before coming in as a late replacement for Royals last season. Mostly effective, at times game-changing, but rarely being the one hogging the limelight. With swing being his most potent weapon, his most ideal phase of operation is in the powerplay, as evidenced in his second IPL season with Kings XI Punjab, where he returned 18 wickets from 11 innings, out of which 13 in the powerplay - the most by any bowler in that phase.
At the same time, his skillset was proving equally vulnerable in the death overs. In 2014, he conceded at 13.12. In the following three years, it improved to 9.86, 10.21 and 10.79 respectively, but not enough for his team to rely on him in the crucial phase.
It wasn't supposed to be his day to rescue his side to
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