Mohammed Siraj is Quietly Owning the Bowling Show of the Batter-Friendly IPL 2023
Siraj won POTM for his 4/21 vs PBKS (AP Photo)
Not all those who create headlines are necessarily headline material. But some, who become the headline despite not necessarily bagging them on every given day, prove themselves to be worth their salt.
Mohammed Siraj is one among them.
Not the last of his kind, but certainly among the rare simpletons whose personality isn't the reason why he makes news, it's Mohammed Siraj's work ethic and constant dedication to his craft that put him out there.
And that day too will come when he'll be rated as among the best across formats in the game.
These are but the crucial beginnings of what could well be a long and productive career for a country that's ever in short supply of able and most importantly, reliable fast bowlers.
And truth be told, if there was ever any fine indication of just how fine a job Mohammed Siraj is doing for India, then look nowhere but at the IPL 2023 for relevant evidence.
But first up, here's a fundamental truth. Though many might revile it altogether.
With much due respect to Delhi, if you do happen to have an ordinary day out in the field for the current bottom dwellers of the IPL, then perhaps the scorn directed at you won't last a mile.
Barring a few name calling tweets, they'll forget about it dubbing it nothing else than another 'normal day out in the field.'
It may just be that way for the Sunrisers as well. But not RCB; when you perform well for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, a team that's derided as much as it is celebrated, your efforts tend to form their own headlines.
An individual performance marked by a strand of consistency can tilt the verve of emotion surrounding the most polarising unit towards huge praise.
That's precisely what Mohammed Siraj did for the RCB in their valuable game against the Punjab Kings.
In the end, the team that did win it in the fashion of a king was the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore, making a brilliant victory march on the individual fast bowling skill of Siraj.
By producing a rather remarkable effort that yielded a four-for in the end and that too, on a batting-friendly surface at Mohali, Mohammed Siraj crowned himself the king of Punjab.
Cliched as it may sound, Siraj, who didn't stray but maintained enviable discipline, bowled a stump to stump line thereby restricting a constantly faltering middle and lower order for runs.
There were no easy runs; on Siraj's watch you could only manufacture them as seen in the case of Harpreet Brar, whose dismissal right towards the end of the inning meant that the last stand of any reckoning was removed.
But much earlier than that, Siraj meant business.
What made for a rather interesting sight was the sheer immediacy with which the right arm pacer came back into fine shape after the left-hander Taide had clipped the first ball of his opening over for an easy boundary towards mid wicket.
The very next ball, pitched around middle held its line and crashed into the pads.
There was emotion in the field, a sense of energy gravitating towards the RCB and it didn't change any time soon.
Next up in Siraj's alley was the big fish Livingstone, the cracking big hitter playing his maiden IPL contest in 2023.
Failing to make an impression whatsoever, the tall customer who operates like some dealer in sixes and fours failed to hit any; an overtly aggressive stroke intended to send the white ball flying saw it coming into the pads with a perfectly pitched up delivery bowled around the middle doing the trick.
A wicket with which RCB broke the back of Punjab's batting, it was further derailment that would take centrestage and Siraj was in a no-nonsense mood.
While the big runs belonged to Faf and captain Virat, who must be lauded for their unmatched consistency, it ought to be asked whether the Bangalore side would have remained in the game sans Mohammed Siraj's magical spell.
Lest it is forgotten, the tall bowler conceded no more than 21 from a full quota of overs and on a surface where runs weren't entirely out of offer.
But this isn't the first time that Siraj's produced a cracker of a spell in a tournament that so habitually adores big hits and lanky sixes; on April 10, Siraj removed Lucknow SuperGiants' top order on his own on his way to a 3-for spell.
Right now, as the big headlines belong to the massive scores made by his captain Faf or to Rinku Singh's powerful counterattacking efforts, Siraj has made the IPL 2023 a level playing field through sheer self belief and rigour.
For his love for the game and most importantly, the will to improve as he confessed in the post-game ceremony versus Punjab, we ought to accommodate more space to India's often unsung seamer who's always trying out there than we do.
 "Dev Tyagi")
