Nair eschews flair until no time to spare

A few weeks ago Karun Nair was working on a batting drill with Delhi Daredevils mentor Rahul Dravid that required him to strike balls rolled underarm along the ground.

“It was just putting my weight through the ball,” Nair said, explaining the rationale behind the exercise. “When it’s rolled you have to actually go towards the ball and strike it. That was the only thinking behind it.”

While it would be presumptuous to attribute every big hit of his to the drill, it might have had a role to play in some of his shots in Friday night’s game against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Look at the 17th over, for instance, where his pair of sixes – after JP Duminy’s dismissal – were instrumental in bringing the target down from 42 off 24 balls to 28 off 18. The second of those sixes was a slower delivery from Barinder Sran, and Nair had to manufacture power to tonk it over midwicket. His pull off a slower ball from Moises Henriques in the ninth over was cast in the same mould too.

But impressively none of this was achieved in random spurts. Nair’s innings, like it has been for most of the tournament, was easy-paced with gradual spikes in the scoring rate. From 18 off 12 balls, he went to 32 off 28, 50 off 42 and finally 83* in 59.

“That’s how I bat at the start,” Nair said of his approach. “I want to play normal cricket shots and hit the gaps. I was lucky that everything I hit went in the gaps.”

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