We have already seen a lot of carnage from batsmen in the ongoing edition of the Indian T20 League, but that hasn't stopped South African paceman Kagiso Rabada from dominating with his bowling in the death overs.
Rabada is currently the highest wicket-taker in this edition with seven wickets to his name in just three games, and it's quite an astonishing fact that five of his seven wickets till now have come in the death overs (17-20). Not only that, he has taken those wickets at a sensational strike-rate of 6.0 and maintained a mean economy rate of 6.60 while doing so.
Not only in this season, but Rabada was in an equally good bowling form last year as well. He was the leading wicket-taker in the league stage until his journey was cut short due to an injury. The 24-year-old finished the 2019 season with 25 wickets at an excellent average and strike-rate of 14.72 and 11.28 respectively. A large chunk of his wickets (17) during the last season came in the death overs once again, and that shows how hard batsmen have found handling him in such a critical stage of the game in recent times.
In fact, a lot of credit for Delhi's success in the last two years should go to Rabada for his bowling exploits. He has been the ace among the bowlers who have proven their credentials as lethal death bowling weapons for their respective teams.
|
Players |
Overs |
Wickets |
Average |
Strike-rate |
Economy rate |
|
Kagiso Rabada |
25 |
22 |
9.6 |
6.8 |
8.44 |
|
Jasprit Bumrah |
52.4 |
27 |
16.6 |
11.7 |
8.51 |
|
Chris Morris |
17 |
10 |
15.5 |
10.2 |
9.12 |
|
Jofra Archer |
33.5 |
15 |
20.5 |
13.5 |
9.07 |
|
Bhuvneshwar Kumar |
34.1 |
13 |
26.8 |
15.8 |
10.19 |
Table: Performance of some of the best death bowlers between over 17 and 20 since Indian T20 League 2018
As visible in the table above, Rabada has taken only five wickets lesser than Bumrah in the death overs of the competition since 2018, but he has bowled 27.4 overs lesser than his Indian counterpart. Now that is an incredible effort to be so close to Bumrah's tally despite bowling so much fewer balls.
Not only that, Rabada trumps everyone in terms of the other metrics as well. He has a far better average and strike-rate than all of the other bowlers in the table above, and that proves why he has been the best in the business of late.
Whenever we think about the greatest death bowlers of all-time in the tournament, Lasith Malinga's name is always the first that comes to our mind. The Sri Lankan legend maintained his consistency for a considerable period, though. 90 out of his total of 170 career wickets in the Indian T20 League came between overs 17 and 20. That's around 53% of his total wickets.
For Rabada, the death overs wickets tally stands at 60.5% of the total wickets (38) he has claimed in the competition right now. Yes, he will definitely need to prove his consistency in the coming years to be called an all-time great like Malinga but at the moment, there is no other death bowler who can be regarded as better than him.
Feature image courtesy: Twitter.com / @Delhi
