Pawan Negi bowled an important spell (five for 22 in his four overs) for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to help them to win the Champion’s League title for second time. Varun Arora looks back at his magical spell in the CLT20 2014 final.
Pawan Negi was watching all the action from the sidelines when Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were playing the league stages of the Champions League T20 (CLT20) 2014. He finally got his chance when Mithun Manhas was dropped for the semi-final match against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). He conceded 28 runs and picked up two wickets and also smacked a mighty six of Akshar Patel in the first match he played at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.
Negi was again drafted in the CSK line-up for the big final against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). He had the duty to support Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the spin department. He was introduced to bowl in the eighth over when KKR batsmen were getting momentum. His first over was expensive and he went back conceding 9 runs.
The first blood – Robin Uthappa
CSK needed to get back in the game. They needed to stop the pair of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa who were taking the game away from them. Then came Negi again to bowl the 11th over. He had conceded two runs of the first five four deliveries. The pressure was building. Negi sprayed the fifth delivery with a bit of loop and with the angle into the batsman enticing Uthappa to hit it for a big one but it spun sharply and Uthappa was caught far outside his crease. This was first wicket for the Delhi lad. The veteran Jacques Kallis was now on the crease. Negi was ready to bowl the last delivery of his successful over. He bowled a pretty similar delivery, enticed Kallis to drive it and managed to get a get a thick edge but Suresh Raina at first slip puts it down. It would have been two in two for Negi but he smiled and went back to take his fielding position.
The veteran- Jacques Kallis
Dhoni who was watching the youngstar from behind the stumps knew he was bowling well and called in him to bowl his third over. Kallis was ready to face the first ball of the 13th over. He was prepared to take on the youngster who had deceived him in the last over. Negi bowled the loopy flighted delivery which was making rotations and slowly carving towards Kallis. Watching it, Kallis stepped down and tried to hoick the ball over extra over for a big six but miscued it to cover point where Ashish Nehra grabbed it safely.
The final three victims and the five-wicket haul
Negi was recalled again to bowl the second last over of the match. It was a brave move by Dhoni but Negi had a plan. He knew what to bowl to which batsmen. The local boy Manish Pandey was batting on 32 and was looking dangerous. He had hit Nehra for 19 runs in the 17th over and now threatened to hit the left-arm spinner for plenty. Negi came in and bowled a flatter delivery. Pandey had a mighty blow at it which went straight Brendon McCullum at long-on. Ten Doeschate was the new man in to face the fourth ball of the over. He had his eyes set on the straight boundary. Negi saw ten Doeschate coming down the wicket and immediately tossed the ball wide outside off which ten Doeschate failed to connect. There was a huge roar in the Chinnaswamy Stadium after this wicket. He still had two deliveries left in his last over. Surya Kumar Yadav was sent in to deal with the left-arm spinner. Yadav tried to slog the first ball but missed it. Negi bowled the next one outside off-stump and Yadav reverse sweeps it straight to short third man. Another one bites the dust. It was a five-wicket haul for Negi. He looked up in the sky with both hands flying in jubilation. He now held the best bowling figures in CLT20 history.
(Varun Arorais a reporter with CricketCountry.com. Started as a medium-fast bowler, converted to an opening batsman but finally settled with his passion of writing about the game. His Twitter handle is @varunjgd)
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