India’s left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem has on Thursday (June 25) recalled how MS Dhoni's advice helped him get the wicket of dangerous West Indian great Chris Gayle during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) and Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2017.
It is well known to the world that Dhoni, one of the most decorated captains in the cricket history, has the sharpest mind and his shrewd captaincy and street-smartness apart from his magical wicketkeeping and batting skills – which makes everyone curious to pick his brain whenever they get the opportunity.
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Nadeem has also got the golden opportunity to take some tips from the legendary cricketer when the former India skipper joined the Jharkhand state team for the 2017-18 Vijay Hazare Trophy.
The 30-year-old, who made his India debut last year, took the opportunity to ask Dhoni about how to dismiss Gayle as he hasn’t bowl him by then despite making IPL debut in 2011 and former captain hilariously told him that “the first thing is never bowl to Gayle”.
Speaking to Aakash Chopra for his YouTube channel, Nadeem revealed that he had practiced the Chinaman bowling for two years to prepare himself for the fight against one of the all-time greatest batsmen Gayle in the T20 cricket.
He further revealed Dhoni’s advice, saying the legendary captain suggested him to keep the ball close to Gayle’s body in order to make it tough for the hard-hitter to hit the big shots. Later, the spinner asked Dhoni whether it would be a good option to bowl chinaman against Gayle and the latter told him to go ahead with the plan only if can execute it.
Nadeem told Aakash Chopra: “Why I started bowling the Chinaman again was because whenever I had played in the IPL, I had never bowled against Gayle. So, it was always in my mind and people also used to say that Gayle bashes the left-arm spinners a lot, so how should I escape. So, I used to say that I will bowl the Chinaman to him. So just thinking about Gayle I practiced the Chinaman for two years.”
He further added, “Once I was speaking to Mahi Bhai when he came to play Vijay Hazare. I asked him everyone else is fine, but what should be bowled to Gayle as a left-arm spinner. His reply was 'First of all, you should not bowl to him at all.’ But if you need to bowl, try not to give him the ball in his arc. Either bowl outside his range or close to his pads, so that he takes a single’.”
The moment finally came in the 56th match of the IPL 2017 when Zaheer Khan handed the ball to Nadeem who executed his plan of bowling wrist spin to Gayle that worked in the third ball of his over when the RCB batsman slapped the ball down midwicket’s throat to end up caught by his captain.
Nadeem signed off by saying, “I remember I bowled the first ball and he (Gayle) played a sort of slog sweep. The ball hit the bottom portion of his bat and he ran a single hitting the ball to deep midwicket. Virat took a single off the next ball which brought Gayle back on strike again. I told myself that I got away since it was just a single, but the third ball of the over I got my confidence back, bowled the chinaman and he was out caught at midwicket - Zaheer Bhai took the wicket.”
(With India Today Inputs)
