Smart Captaincy: How Rajat Patidar's Wait Game Led To Shreyas Iyer's Demise Vs Hazlewood

Hazlewood Vs Iyer [Source: @iplt20.com]

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) certainly missed their captain-player duo of Rajat Patidar and Josh Hazlewood as their presence in the ongoing clash Vs Punjab Kings boosted RCB's chances of reaching the finale. RCB's stand-in captain in the last match, Jitesh Sharma did well with the bat in the last match but his captaincy was criticised.

Hence, Patidar's incoming was a blessing in disguise and the magic worked instantly as RCB churned out PBKS wickets at will. However, eyebrows were raised when Hazlewood wasn't given the new ball and instead, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal shared it. But most people don't know that it was a tactical masterclass by Patidar as he played the perfect wait game.

How Patidar masterclass dismissed Shreyas Iyer

For starters, Hazlewood has an impeccable record against Shreyas Iyer and he was the one who dismissed the Punjab skipper, the last time these two teams met. As a result, he held back the Aussie bowler and once Iyer came to the crease, Patidar unleashed him.

(Iyer Vs Hazlewood)

As the numbers say, in T20s, Hazlewood has dominated the PBKS skipper, dismissing him 4 times and only conceding 11 runs. Hence, Patidar played the waiting game and brought the Aussie only when Iyer walked out. Any other captain might have brought his best bowler early in the innings, but this is where Patidar excelled.

Why Iyer struggles against Hazlewood?

Iyer generally has a weakness with hit the deck bowling and Hazlewood is a master of it. Throughout his career, Iyer has failed to work on this weakness. Hazlewood has the height advantage to exploit extra bounce and the PBKS batter is vulnerable against it.

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