Asia

GT vs PBKS: Fed to the Gills, Liam ‘Filler-a-Miller’ Livingstone & Bowler, the boulder

May 4, 2022
Henry Club

Shubman Gill wasn’t happy, but it felt like not owning up his mistake. Gill misjudged the single, after pushing a Sandeep Sharma delivery towards extra cover. To start with, he timed the ball a little too well and it traveled quickly to Rishi Dhawan. Gill set off as soon as he hit the ball and maybe, he was confident to take on Dhawan’s arm.

The batsman had to get around Sharma who was completing his follow-through. Dhawan broke the stumps with a direct hit and Gill was well short. It didn’t even need the third umpire. But Gill thought that Sharma got in the way and seemingly took umbrage.

Not a fair call that. The bowler wasn’t guilty and Gill searching for an excuse attested frustration.

Liam ‘Filler-a-Miller’ Livingstone

Rahul Chahar hurt his hand while taking a throw, forcing him to temporarily leave the field. Liam Livingstone had to come in as a filler, in the middle of an over. Livingstone’s bowling variety is right-arm mixed bag – off-spin is his stock delivery to the left-handers and leg-spin to the right-handers.

Two southpaws, Sai Sudharsan and David Miller, were batting for Gujarat Titans and there had to be an overload of off-breaks from the Punjab Kings all-rounder. Chahar was still receiving treatment, so Livingstone got an extra over, and accounted for Miller with one of his off-breaks. The ball was too full to be clobbered that way and the batsman was too close to the delivery to get the required elevation. Livingstone proved to be the man with the golden arm and his franchise was quick to react on Twitter: “Came in as a filler, gets the big wicket of Miller!”

Bowler, the boulder

Jitesh Sharma was trying to drive home his point, but Arshdeep Singh was standing firm, both literally and figuratively. The last ball of Gujarat Titans innings was uneventful until the point Sharma, the Punjab Kings wicketkeeper, became very keen to attempt a run-out at the non-striker’s end, and Singh, the bowler, sort of denied him the opportunity, thanks to an extended follow-through. Sai Sudharsan tried to ramp the delivery, was beaten by the slower ball and ran as an afterthought. Alzarri Joseph, the non-striker, had set off early and Sudharsan was seriously struggling at the other end. Sharma wanted to throw but Singh came in the way, which the ‘keeper didn’t take too kindly. As a bye was conceded, he gave his team-mate an earful. Singh responded immediately. All in the heat of the moment.

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