Redemption, resilience and retribution – Yash Dayal’s rise has been a tale straight from the cricketing lore

“Having a left-armer (Yash Dayal) is crucial and we see that with every team, he has a good change of pace and is a class act”, said Josh Hazlewood in his post-match speech after he destroyed the top-order of CSK. Yash Dayal, the man who got whacked for 31 runs in the final over against KKR in IPL 2023 was picked up by RCB in IPL 2024.

The start had its fair shares of jitters for the youngster but as time went by, he started building confidence and momentum. Slowly and steadily, he turned into the go-to man for Faf du Plessis in the last season and now has once again proven to be a trustworthy campaigner for RCB’s new skipper, Rajat Patidar.

Last night when Chennai had two set batters sparking possibilities of a miraculous turnaround, all it took Yash Dayal was a solitary over to change the course of the fixture. Dayal didn’t bowl in elongated spells. Rajat kept him for those isolated bursts of brilliance and he delivered them just in time.

He bowled his first over in powerplay, conceding only four runs. He then came back to the attack in the 11th over when Shivam Dube was just starting to look dangerous while Rachin Ravindra kept on hitting the odd one out of the park with his rhythm growing. The second over bowled by Dayal wasn’t an extraordinary one. All he could do was build some intense pressure and eventually set up the two humongous strikers of the ball to go big in the next over.

The first ball of his third over saw him getting the better of Rachin Ravindra. A quicker one darted outside that off pole saw Ravindra dragging it down to his own timbre. Dayal repeated the process to Shivam Dube, getting whacked for a four in the fourth ball of the over. A minor modulation of the length and an identical line, tempted Dube to go down the ground again and in the process, all he could do was play it on to his own stumps.

That over was possibly the killing blow as after that CSK hardly dared to go for the big hits until it was too late. He didn’t come back for a fourth over as Rajat wanted to try out his options. This is not the first time that Yash Dayal has proven to be the key element in the RCB echelons, laying waste to CSK.

Even in the last year’s IPL, when RCB had only 16 runs to play with in the final over with the play-offs ticket dangling by a very slender thread, Dayal delivered the goods. Despite being cracked for a maximum on the first ball, not only did he claim MS Dhoni on the second but only conceded a single in the next four balls, winning the match and the qualification for the Royal Challengers.

Over the last year and so, it has already been a comeback and a half for Yash Dayal. From being tonked out of recognition, Dayal has established himself as a mainstay in the RCB unit. He continues to repay the good faith that the RCB management has bestowed in him following those embers of resilience.