Middle order arrives at the party with Nicholas Pooran

Mayank Agawal spoke a few words in dismay before limping off the field in the sixth over. Nicholas Pooran had asked for a risky single at a time when there was no need for one, and he just left. Hesitant at first, Agarwal gave up after seeing Pooran halfway there. His desperate rush to beat R Ashwin’s throw to the goalkeeper proved futile.

That essentially meant that the higher order in the form of KXIP, KL Rahul, Chris Gayle and now Agarwal, were back in the hut within the power play, with only 56 runs removed from their target of 165. Having shot well upon death, For a change, To restrain the Delhi Capitals table tops despite Shikhar Dhawan’s historical successive second century, Kings XI Punjab, in keeping with its alarming pattern at this IPL, seemed hell-bent on suppressing yet another simple persecution.

For all intents and purposes, KXIP’s hitting ends with his no. 6 and only followed by a frequently-shifting SUV at No. 7 and four potentials no. 11 s. And that top half includes a failed Glenn Maxwell who hadn’t scored more than 13 in an inning in any of the nine games before tonight.

Even when Pooran shrugged nonchalantly at what Agarwal had to say before he left, he was well aware of the enormous task at hand. Despite being comfortably ahead of the order rate and with seven wickets still intact, Pooran was his team’s last realistic hope of making sure this doesn’t add to their already unhealthy portion of botched chases and narrow losses.

Luckily for Punjab, Pooran was not on his first rescue mission this IPL, not even this year.

In a star-studded lineup and ever-changing four-man foreign lineup at KXIP, Pooran has quickly cemented a place of middle order for himself through vital cameos that are often buried in the superlative form of starters or the series of heartbreaking losses. But against Sunrisers Hyderabad, albeit in a lost cause, he proved he was more than capable of playing the leading role. Pooran came in 2/1 in the fifth over and his 77 of 37 balls kept KXIP in pursuit of 202 runs as long as he stayed in the middle. The next best score by a Punjab hitter that night was 11.

“Even in the last season he had shown glimpses of what a good player he is. We have had a lot of talks. He is someone who wants to improve every day and is very interested in being a game winner for us,” said skipper. KL Rahul had said after the game against Sunrisers.

At CPL 2020, a tournament dominated by spinners and therefore with average totals, Pooran had scored the only hundred of this edition for Guyana Amazon Warriors before heading to the UAE for IPL. That hundred, his maiden in the format, came in a tricky field where in the previous double-headed game Saint Lucia had successfully scored and defended only 92. Pooran’s century, with only 45 balls with a touch of strike rate per Above 222, it came at a time when the GAW had been reduced to 25 by 3 in a hard chase of 150.

Pooran had landed the gig at IPL in 2019 after an intense bidding war between KXIP and Royal Challengers Bangalore, having topped the race charts in the previous edition of the Abu Dhabi T10 league in the United Arab Emirates. His first season for KXIP went off course early, first because of a lack of opportunity to hit higher and then because of an injury sustained after a field collision while fielding, ruling him out for a substantial period. Pooran announced himself well and truly on the IPL stage with a 46-for-28 cameo against RCB in a fairly effects-friendly attack. He added just 168 runs in seven starts, but came in at an encouraging hit rate of 157 and bolstered the middle order as his first finisher, David Miller, struggled to maintain consistency. More importantly, those runs were enough for then-captain Ashiwn to flag him as the one who could potentially form the “core” of Punjab hitting.

KXIP’s faith in Pooran stems from the fact that the Trinidadian has demonstrated time and again the tendency to raise their hands when the team has had their back against the wall. On Tuesday, Pooran had the man feature a platform, some would say he’s an eventual replacement for Chris Gayle. All Pooran had to do was avoid unnecessary panic, the kind that caused Agarwal to run out of air and, moments later, almost cost him his own window in a similar way.

Pooran made the most of that pardon and hammered 42 of the next 19 balls he faced, aided by an erroneous call from Delhi that pulled Kagiso Rabada and Ashwin out of the attack on the game’s march. Pooran took the opportunity to get rid of all the oversight and redeemed himself with a 15 outrage from Tushar Deshpande. He hooked and threw the rookie for a six and a limit on the side of the leg and was even lucky to see an inside rim pass a dive effort from Rishabh Pant behind the stumps and find him four more. The 25-year-old welcomed Marcus Stoinis to the attack with a six and one more limit to help the Punjab break the 100-run mark at the end of the 10th and go far ahead.

It was Pooran’s assault from one end that protected a not-so-fluent Maxwell and gave him time in between to settle down, while also ensuring that the momentum was sustained at KXIP despite Delhi’s best effort to perform a comeback. Pooran ran to 27 balls 50 with another lucky edge that evaded Pant and ran for the ropes. He left the scene right after, certainly disappointed in himself for not finishing the job, but successfully pulling the Punjab out of another awkward position and putting them on the brink of a third win on the rebound. By the time of his firing, the order rate had already dropped to less than running a buck. The lower order, guided by Maxwell’s 32 pilots, did the rest.

Pooran’s contributions earlier in the season have reflected that enthusiasm as well, even if they have come in installments of 20s, 30s, and 40s, and, like so many others on his team, they ended up on the wrong side of the result more often than they were. I would like. In a tight batting order, where supporting acts have been few and far between, Pooran has become indispensable to this setup. KXIP would simply be glad to have accepted the challenge head-on.