BENGALURU: The scoring sequence — 6, 2, 4, 6, 6, 6 — was enough to seal CSK’s fate. This was what RCB’s Tim David unleashed on pacer Jamie Overton in the 19th over. Off the 19 sixes struck by five RCB batters on Sunday night, the towering Australian accounted for eight.
The 30-year-old finisher shrugged off a testing few months to light up the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and start off his IPL season in style.
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Playing for Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, David had been ruled out on Dec 26 last year with a Grade 2 right hamstring strain. He returned for the T20 World Cup but made little impact as Australia made a hasty exit. David only had scores of 0 and 6 against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka to show.
After a modest, unbeaten 16 off 10 balls in the season opener against SRH, he exploded against CSK, raising both tempo and temperature on a muggy night. The unbeaten 70 off 25 balls powered the defending champions to a 43-run win but more than the result, it was a masterclass in clean, calculated power-hitting.
Walking in with 35 balls remaining, David was kept quiet for six deliveries before he decided to launch the onslaught. RCB skipper Rajat Patidar, who had been striking fluently, stepped back and watched the assault unfold, later calling David “one of the best finishers I have seen”.
A lifeline came when David, on 28, was bowled off a no-ball by Anshul Kamboj, a moment CSK would come to rue. Head coach Stephen Fleming admitted the margin for error against a hitter like David was minimal.
“Against a hitter like Tim David, who is very destructive, you’ve got to be absolutely spot on. Once we fell behind, he got his rhythm. There’s really small margins and with a good hitter like David, we’ve got to be more exact than that. So we missed where we needed to be and we got hurt in hardest fashion,” Fleming said.
David, who has been routinely targeting the stands during nets, sent one 106 metres into the roof and later joked, “I’ve been getting into trouble during training with the boys. We have competitions to try and hit them on the roof and we’re obviously on the side pitches. So, to get one during a match out of the middle, help it up on the roof, it was good fun.”
He credited his preparation and batting coach Dinesh Karthik for the clarity in approach. “We do a lot of preparation. It’s nice to work with DK. He is an experienced player in these conditions and has been in the IPL for many years. With that prep, you don’t put pressure on yourself to perform,” David said.
At the other end of the spectrum, Devdutt Padikkal admitted there was much to learn from David’s approach. “I wish I could hit anywhere close to what he hits like. Just looking at the technique that he has, you can try and pick up things,” he said.
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