IPL 2024: Harpreet Brar’s Strategy Revealed, Dot Balls Lead to Wickets, Says PBKS Player After Win Against CSK

Talk about knitting magic. Harpreet Brar did exactly that for Punjab Kings today, as the lefty off-spinner’s phenomenal display with the ball led to a dominant 7-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in Chepauk last night.

Brar produced a player-of-the-match performance with the ball, as the off-spinner ended his four-over spell against hosts CSK with figures of 2/17 as he claimed the crucial wickets of Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dubey. After a spirited start from CSK with the bat, Brar conceded just 33 runs with leggie Rahul Chahar and took four wickets together in their 8 overs to create confusion in the batting order, eventually restricting them to a subpar 162 runs. “It was a good wicket to bowl on, and Rahul also bowled really well. I have been playing for 6 years, so my confidence is very high. Now bowling to these legends of the game seems normal, I just bowl to my strengths,” said a humble Brar in a post-match interview.

One of the biggest defining factors of Brar and Chahar’s spell was their ability to completely remove boundaries. In fact, none of the bowlers conceded a single boundary during their respective spells, and was a big reason for holding CSK hostage as the hosts endured their longest boundary drought so far this season, lasting 55 balls. In fact, Brar also reinstated how he focused on bowling the dot ball as he believed that discipline and the batsman it applied to would eventually yield wickets.

“To be honest, I don’t think wickets, my aim is just to bowl a lot of dot balls and dot balls make wickets. When there is spin in the wicket, the confidence of the bowlers increases and that helps a bit,” said Brar. With their win tonight, PBKS have moved up to sixth in the IPL standings, just above the Gujarat Titans, while CSK are currently fourth.