On Wednesday night, South Africa’s Marco Jansen would’ve understood one thing. Bowling at the death isn’t quite the same as operating the powerplay. On somedays, one can get rid of top-order batters in a jiffy, and on others, not-so-accomplished batters can rip the heart out of one.

Less than a week ago, Jansen was brimming with confidence. The very first over he bowled decided the fate of the match. With the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli in their ranks, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batting lineup is neither short of experience, nor there is dearth of firepower.

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Jansen made a mockery of it. Du Plessis, Anuj Rawat and Kohli perished within a blink of an eye. In fact, after he pinned Kohli, Jansen found himself in a hat-trick, although he couldn’t get it. RCB never recovered from the early jolts and registered one of their lowest scores in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Left-armer T Natarajan had better bowling figures on paper than Jansen. But it was the latter, who won the Player of the Match award, and rightly so. It was Jansen’s ferocity that exposed the frailties in RCB’s middle-order. Jansen’s spell was one of the reasons behind SRH being able to improve their net run rate despite their initial 61-run loss to Rajasthan Royals (RR).

“This is the best spell I have bowled with the white ball so far,” said Jansen after Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) defeated RCB by 9 wickets after chasing down 69 in 8 overs at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.

Heaven turns hell

Jansen, clearly, had gained the faith of his skipper Kane Williamson. Hence, in SRH’s very next game, the southpaw was given the responsibility to bowl the final over. Facing him was Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan, who are both known for playing handy cameos lower down the order. Chasing 22 runs off 6 balls was a tall order for the two Gujarat Titans’ batters in the middle.

Therefore, Jansen would surely have fancied his chances of seeing the Sunrisers through to their sixth win on the trot. But the batters in the middle had other ideas. Tewatia cleared his front leg and clobbered Jansen for a six. The shot was pretty similar to the one he played off Odean Smith to help GT snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against the Punjab Kings (PBKS).

Jansen changed his length to short and it paid dividends as Tewatia only fetched a single. With 15 runs to defend off 4 balls, the left-arm bowled one in the slot and Rashid muscled the ball down the ground for a maximum. It was evident that fuller-length balls weren’t working for Jansen.

The bowler changed his length and immediately, he reaped the rewards. Rashid had an almighty heavy only to concede a crucial dot ball to the opposition. With 2 balls left, all three results were on the cards. The Titans needed at least one six to secure victory in the thrilling encounter.

Surprisingly, Jansen again opted for a full delivery and he paid the price for it. Rashid sliced a low and wide full toss over the covers for a maximum. With 3 runs needed off the final ball, Jansen did return to bowling short, but Rashid was equal to the task as he pulled one over the fine leg fielder’s head for a six.

Jansen also made own the dubious record of conceding the most runs in a run-chase in the history of the IPL. The left-armer finished with figures of 4-0-63-0. He surpassed his own countryman Lungi Ngidi, who had leaked 62 runs against the Mumbai Indians (MI) back in 2019.

Despite being put to the swords, Williamson backed Jansen to make amends in SRH’s upcoming games. While Jansen has shown how effective he can be with the new ball, he needs to work on certain aspects of his bowling to become more versatile.

Dale Steyn has worked wonders with the likes of Umran Malik and Natarajan. It remains to be seen if the legendary paceman can groom Jansen into a world-beater by the end of the IPL 2022.