New Delhi: At last, Andrew Tye did get something worthwhile on Tuesday to commemorate his grandmother's passing away. The Aussie, who wore a black tape around his arm with grandma written on it, picked three wickets in the 20th over of the RR innings to restrict the hosts well short of par score -- 158. With figures of 4/34, an emotional Tye dedicated his performance to his grandmother and also took the purple cap totaling 16 wickets.
Before the 20th over, Tye had forgettable figures of 3-0-28-1, though he did pick Ajinkya Rahane early with a knuckleball. Tye experienced expensive two overs later on but it was the 20th over in which Tye totally cut down on his pace and tried to be at least predictable. With batsmen charging at him, he rolled fingers and used the knuckleball to good effect.
His three dismissals in the last over were perfect examples of how his reading of the pitch helped him better his figures. The Sawai Man Singh pitch had slowed down considerably and was gripping the surface.
Not just Tye, the breakthrough and the brakes were put on with the help of some intelligent bowling by Afghanistan's mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman. He picked up two wickets -- that of Sanju Samson and dangerman Jos Buttler -- to help KXIP claw back. On both occasions, it was his googly that did the trick. Both Samson and Buttler jumped out fractionally early to signal Mujeeb to alter his length. His late release aided in delivering the googly and the batsmen were deceived.
