IPL2020: Delhi Capitals To beat RCB, Secured 1st Place On the points table.

Let’s speak of the off-spin since batsmen snatch the headlines, almost always. And there are days when six perfect yorkers are bowled by a medium pacer.

And our attention appears to change to Yuzvendra Chahal’s googlies on certain rare occasions when we are bored of being in awe of the outrageous batting of Andre Russell or the accuracy of Jasprit Bumrah. And the spin on the wrist is attractive.

The ball rotates further. And we somehow appear to give leg-spinners more leeway. Off-spin no longer commands the right, not if no exceptional ‘doosra’ or ‘carom ball’ is on offer.

Two Chennai boys, however, demonstrated that it could also be productive on Monday. In many respects, Washington Sundar and R Ashwin are close.

They are tall batsmen turned bowlers who have similar acts of release. In terms of wickets, they have not exactly hit pay dirt, but because economics is the standard of the performance of bowlers in this style, they have proved to be a runaway success.

And what may also have benefited them a bit was bowling upfront for left-handers. Let’s start with Sundar, who on Monday finished 4-0-20-0.

Take his spell from the bowling of Royal Challengers Bangalore, and it means they have been milked in 16 overs for 176 runs. Was it good, after all, to choose a field? Does he need to reconsider Virat Kohli’s strategy?

But where Kohli did well was early in the innings when he got four decent overs from Sundar. Bowling in the presence of Chahal, in a wicket-to-wicket line, those batsmen find hard to strike out at, Sundar has made it a habit to vary his pace.

He began against Sunrisers Hyderabad with one over, followed by two against Kings XI Punjab. But Sundar has bowled his full quota in the three matches since and returned economies of 3, 5, and 5.

The third time, Ashwin found a spot on the side of this IPL, not a regular anymore. And although he may have irked Ricky Ponting in his first over by almost mankading Aaron Finch, Ashwin does what he knows best.

He bowed straight like an arrow, choked his runs, and pushed Devdutt Padikkal, the major hit, into a slog that was not on. Padikkal was the big wicket clearly because he gave RCB much-required consistency at the top for a side boasting the likes of Kohli and AB de Villiers.

In the third over, Ashwin took it away. And then, just before the death overs, he ended his quota, ending with 4-0-26-1. Ashwin and Sundar both bowled nine dot-balls each. That, in this format, is worth its gold weight.