The tagline of IPL is 'where talent meets opportunity', and over the years, many prodigies have justified this bottom line of the world's best T20 league. On Monday (April 14), a new chapter was added to the long list of fairytale stories of the IPL.
Praful Hinge would have been an unknown name to 99 percent of cricket fans in India till he came to bowl his first-ever over in IPL cricket. Six balls later, he had ensured that nobody hereafter would forget his name. How could they, when a lad turns up on debut and takes out three wickets in the very first over?
It does help when your team puts 216 on the board, but Rajasthan Royals led by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's merciless assaults, had been a nightmare for bowlers. When veterans like Jasprit Bumrah, Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar were unable to stop the left-hander, it took Hinge just one delivery to dislodge the 15-year-old.
If that wasn't enough, he struck two more times in the same over to all but seal the deal. Teams seldom chase 200-plus scores after being 1/3, more so when the in-form openers are amongst those dismissed batters. The cricketing world was shocked, but Hinge, as he revealed after the game, was not at all overwhelmed by the sensational start to his IPL career.
“I did think about this moment, last year I had written that when I play my first match, I want to take four or five wickets. I just wanted to dominate the power play,” he said.
“I started playing when I was 13. I did not even know what leather ball cricket was. My father said no at first, but I kept going back. Today feels like all of that came together. This is for my family,” he added.
Hinge has been an unsung hero for Vidarbha in First-class cricket, and his accuracy as a seam bowler has always put him on the scout radar. Also, he had done a lot of work under Glenn McGrath's watchful eyes at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai.
Back injuries were a constant obstacle for Hinge, and hence, modifying his action and reworking his body mechanism was another crucial aspect in shaping his career. According to MRF Pace Foundation coach M Senthilnathan, the success we are seeing today is due to a roadmap that was charted back from 2023 onwards. Needless to say, the tactical part of Hinge's game has the McGrath stamp on it.
"McGrath is the best, probably, in the world when it comes to the tactical part," said Senthilnathan in an interview with The New Indian Express. "He has the idea on what's the length to be bowled, what's the line to be bowled. How to use new and old balls. And more importantly, how to handle the pressure of a big game. If they hit you for a six, then you have to come hard in the next ball. You can't keep sitting on the six. These are the things taught by McGrath, which definitely will help his work."
Hinge has ticked the first box of making a start in the IPL, a record-breaking one at that, and now, it's about maintaining the high standards.
