(Football news) R Sai Kishore, a Tamil Nadu captain and native of Chennai, just silenced 33,400 Chennai Super Kings supporters at Chepauk by stumping Ajinkya Rahane. He was 1 for 13 after bowling 2.1 overs without giving up a boundary.

However, Shivam Dube just needed to hit two balls for sixes to pick up the pace and revive the commotion. The zoom level increased to 127 dB. Even after MS Dhoni’s diving catch later in the evening, it won’t rise that high.

The two sixes amply demonstrated Shivam Dube’s threat against spin. First, Sai Kishore darted one full and outside off stump from left-arm over, and Dube dropped down on one knee to slog-sweep him over long-on. 

Sai Kishore immediately switched his angle of attack and went around the wicket, and tried to slant the ball away from Dube’s hitting arc. He still used his reach, however, and crunched the left-arm fingerspinner over midwicket for an even bigger six, taking the shot on even with three fielders back on the leg-side boundary.

Just like that, Sai Kishore, who had topped the wickets charts in the 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Ranji Trophy, had been dumped out of the attack. And having taken down one of India’s best domestic spinners, Dube pressed on to line up Rashid Khan, one of the world’s best spinners, launching him over long-on for another six. It was the wrong’un, but it didn’t matter. Dube can also mess with spinners who take the ball away from him.

He had faced only ten balls, and he was already on 24. Since snapping him up at the IPL 2022 auction, CSK have used Shivam Dube as a super-specialist against spin. His strike rate of 162.56 against spin is the best among Indian batters since IPL 2022. Among all batters, only Heinrich Klaasen (192.85) and Glenn Maxwell (176.56) have done better in this period.

Shivam Dube’s tall frame, big reach and brute power have put him among the elite IPL six-hitters in recent times. Since 2022, only Jos Buttler (59) has hit more sixes than his 57, while Andre Russell and Liam Livingstone are level with him.

Shivam Dube, though, has his limitations: he is vulnerable against pace and more specifically express pace. CSK have found a way to minimise those limitations by deploying him through the middle overs, where most teams tend not to bowl too many overs of out-and-out pace. However, the two-bouncer-per-over rule, which was introduced this season, has presented him with a new challenge.

Shortly after Dube came onto the field to bat in the first match of the season against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Faf du Plessis paired him alongside Alzarri Joseph. Even Cameron Green managed to get the ball to rise toward Shivam Dube’s neck when he dug it into the pitch. 

Dale Steyn made the following remark on X, formerly Twitter, around the same time: “Short ball tactic is already indicating who can and who can’t… For some batters, the IPL could be lengthy.”

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