Don’t make a fast bowler angry.
Urvil Patel learnt the lesson the hard way in the Chennai heat on Sunday afternoon. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter, who was playing his first game of IPL 2026, made Kagiso Rabada angry by charging at him and belting him between mid-off and extra-cover for four. Rabada is not used to being treated this way. Especially by a rookie.
More than 31,000 fans at Chepauk made Rabada reach further into the angrier portions of his heart by erupting into cheers and whistles for Urvil. Rabada released all the steam with his very next ball, giving Urvil a feisty send-off after bouncing him out. The Chepauk crowd, feeling Rabada’s wrath, was stunned into silence.
Urvil had charged at Rabada once again, but the Gujarat Titans (GT) fast bowler had banged it in at 149.2kph and turned his attempt to pull into a weak flap into the hands of mid-on. Rabada put his hand up in celebration even before Jason Holder completed the catch. He then sent Urvil off with a death stare.
Rabada’s early dismissal of Urvil had ripple effects too. Just 24 balls into their innings, CSK summoned Sarfaraz Khan as their Impact Player at the cost of bringing in a specialist bowler like Mukesh Choudhary in the second innings. Only twice has the Impact Player been activated sooner in the IPL. Ruturaj Gaikwad, whose first two scoring shots were fours, including an aerial flick, had to dial down his early intent and bat through the innings on a mixed-soil pitch that offered variable bounce after GT had opted to bowl. CSK could manage only 158 for 7 in 20 overs.
“When we started, we felt like there was a lot in the wicket and a lot of moisture, and steep bounce up front, which really helped our bowlers,” Holder said at his post-match press conference. “For CSK, they were probably stuck between a rock and a hard place – trying to get some runs on board, score at a decent clip, but also not give the wickets away.
“So my message was simple to KG [Rabada]. Just continue to hit a really good length, try not to be too short. Urvil played a good shot off the ball before and I guess he fancied himself to try and take him on again. But Kagiso is a world-class bowler – he got a bit more pace, a bit more bounce, and that was his demise.”
Turns out that Rabada was also angry with himself for conceding ten runs in his first over. “Yeah, I actually didn’t feel like I started very well today, but that’s just how cricket goes,” he said after the game. Perhaps influenced by the extravagant bounce on offer in the early exchanges, he went too short and also provided Sanju Samson width and was cracked for a brace of fours in his first over.
Rabada didn’t quite nail his line and length control in his next over either, but the extra pace and zip rushed Samson into a cut and had him nicking off for 11 off 15 balls. Rabada then tightened up and kept pounding the ball on a hard length. He kept attacking the stumps as well, denying CSK’s batters chances to drive or pull. Only three of the 24 balls that Rabada bowled were fuller than a good length, according to ESPNcricinfo’s logs.
After taking out Samson and Urvil, Rabada proceeded to bounce out Kartik Sharma as well. He had Kartik contorting his body into an awkward position before the ball hit his top edge and flew to deep third. It extended his wickets tally this season to 13. Only Anshul Kamboj (14) and Eshan Malinga (14) have more wickets than Rabada this season. More specifically, in the powerplay, nobody has more wickets than Rabada’s nine in eight innings.
Across 15 innings in the previous two IPL seasons, Rabada had managed only five wickets in the powerplay. It’s clear he’s stepped up a level.
On Sunday, he rendered CSK’s batting line-up and the Chepauk crowd powerless. The crowd never really found their voice after Urvil was ripped out, and they began to leave the stadium midway through GT’s chase.
