New Delhi: Andrew Tye strengthened his hold over the Purple cap by adding four wickets to take his tally to 24 wickets. Hardik Pandya is second on the list with 18 wickets. As far as the Orange Cap is concerned, Rishabh Pant is the holder with 582 runs.
No wonder Australian Andrew Tye is the purple cap holder! His three-wicket burst in just two overs, which followed after Mumbai had got themselves on course to a mammoth total in the do or die game, not only triggered hosts' slide but also handed KXIP the remote to take control of the proceedings at the Wankhede. He later added another scalp to finish with figures of 4-0-16-4.
After having cruised to 57/1 in 5 overs thanks to fireworks by Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan, Tye struck twice in the sixth over to tie the hosts down. Tye was so precise with his line that unlike Ankit Rajpoot and Mohit Sharma, who gave ample width to allow Mumbai to free their arms, cramped both Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav for space.
Though Tye did bowl against Kishan in the fourth over, his first, and beat him twice around the fourth stump line. This happened immediately after Evin Lewis, who had begun to show signs of sparking, lost his timber to a Tye knuckle ball.
When he returned in the sixth over, Tye was up against a furious looking MI pair taking on the opposition. But as usual, Tye kept his line so tight that it required batsman's intervention to get runs against him. So when he bowled the first two balls tightly, Kishan lost patience and tried to force him on by jumping out. Tye had seen him coming and bowled another knuckle ball to affect his timing. Kishan was cramped for space and could only scoop it high in the sky.
What T20 cricket has done for the betterment of cricketers is that they could guess. And guess correctly. Anticipation could be another way to put it. So when Tye got two wickets off the knuckle ball, he was aware that Yadav, who had crossed ends and was facing him, will be ready for another knuckle delivery.
Tye, as a counter-intuitive measure, knew he shouldn't be bowling a slower one. Instead, he hit the deck hard, cramped Yadav for space as he tried to manufacture a half-pull/half flick sort of a stroke, only to find an edge lobbing off of his thigh pad. MI were in a spot of bother in a sudden. Tye had triggered the slide, which could have very well sounded the death knell as well.
Tye's high-arm release helps him to release the ball really late and that is one reason he has been so effective at the top and at the death. Tye's smart approach sans width has taken him to 24 wickets, six clear to the second-placed Hardik Pandya in the list.
