Yash Dayal's historic redemption story

Yash Dayal is one of the exciting prospects in the Indian cricket. He is known to have trouble with his left-arm angle and wreak havoc with the ball. However, when Gujarat Titans clashed with Kolkata Knight Riders, Yash Dayal had one of his worst nightmares come true. Dayal had to defend 29 runs in the final over and it seemed Gujarat would win this easily but it was not meant to be.

The first ball of the 20th over was a single and Rinku Singh had to do the unthinkable to help KKR win the match. However, Dayal failed to nail his yorkers, gave a couple of full- tosses and whatever he tried went in vain. As a result, Rinku who plays for the same Ranji Team as Dayal, smashed the GT pacer for five sixes in a row and KKR won the game out of nowhere. This game changed the career of the left-arm pacer and he was not a regular feature in the GT team after that.

Yash had the opportunity to show his class in the 2024 season of the IPL when RCB bought him at the auction. He showed great skills and became a regular feature of the team. However, the moment to burn the ghosts of the past came in the virtual knockout game against Chennai Super Kings on May 18 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

The match went right down the wire and CSK had to score 17 runs in the 20th over to qualify for the playoffs. MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja were at the crease and Faf du Plessis turned to Dayal to guide RCB to playoffs. However, Dhoni smashed Dayal for a maximum in the first ball to swing the game in the playoff spot in favour of CSK.

Starting the over with the six, it seemed Dayal’s past will again haunt him but the left-arm pacer showed great character to dismiss Dhoni with the slower ball in the next ball. However, the job was still not done with CSK requiring 11 runs off four deliveries. But Dayal executed the slower balls to perfection and gave away just one run off the last four balls to pilot RCB to the playoffs. Hence, Dayal vindicated himself after a nightmare of an over in 2023 and turned himself into a hero in 2024.