hreyas Iyer’s poor run of form in the red-ball format of the game continued on Sunday as the Mumbai batter was dismissed for just seven runs in 15 deliveries in the Ranji Trophy final against Vidarbha at the Wankhede Stadium.
Iyer was undone by his fear of short ball as veteran India fast bowler Umesh Yadav dismissed him in the opening session of Day 1 of the summit clash.
The strategy from Umesh was pretty evident from his first delivery against Iyer in the 28th over of the match. All four deliveries in the lead up to the dismissal were short of length, the variety that got him out cheaply in the Ranji Trophy semifinal as well against Tamil Nadu last week.
Iyer left the first two deliveries which shaped away and defended the next two which were on the stumps, but the weakness against the delivery type left going on in his head, as evident from his stance in the fifth ball of that over. Umesh, this time, got the ball to shape away, and Iyer, who had his feet stuck in on man’s land, guided it straight to Karun Nair stationed at slip.