23 years apart, both matches!
Different formats! That was an ODI, this was a T20.
Different significance! One was a World Cup final; one was one of many games in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with no do-or-die situation involved.
But they both reinforce the point that setting the tone is so important in cricket.
It was a little more than 23 years ago when India pacer Zaheer Khan bowled that infamous over against Australia at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. In what was a massive downer, he ended up bowling 10 deliveries in the first over of the match. There were two no-balls and two wides, including a five-run one.
The left-arm pacer gave away 15 runs in the over. The match got over for India right there. It wasn’t the 15 runs that did for India. It was the bedlam, the chaos, the disorder that his bowling gave rise to, and before long consumed the rest of the bowling unit. Australia went on to score in excess of 350 and eventually comfortably won the final.
The Rajasthan Royals-Gujarat Titans IPL 2026 game at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Saturday night brought back the painful memories of that game in South Africa.
This time, the bowler was Jofra Archer. Although he didn’t start his over with a no-ball like Zaheer, he ended up bowling pretty much the same way. In fact, he bowled 11 deliveries. Four of them were wide, including a five-run one, and one was a no-ball. 18 runs off the over, and just like 23 years ago, the match appeared over for the bowling team.
Such starts can be infectious. Zaheer bowled that over, and it set in motion a domino effect. The rest of the bowlers lost the plot too, and India conceded 37 extras. Hard to believe even after 23 years! Two byes, 12 leg byes, seven no-balls and 16 wide runs. Their fielding fell apart, too.
After that Archer over, Rajasthan Royals bowlers couldn’t do any better either. In all, there were 19 extras: one no-ball, 16 wide runs, one bye and one leg-bye. And to make matters worse, there were a few dropped catches. GT captain Shubman Gill top-scored with a 44-ball 84, and he was dropped twice — by stand-in RR skipper Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shimron Hetmyer.
The inevitable defeat in the end!
It was not at all expected from the English tearaway pacer. In the lead-up to the game, he had been a real livewire this season, bowling with fierce pace and more often than not taking wickets in his initial overs. Many a game this season was won owing to his brilliance. So, fans were taken aback by that over, if truth be told. He didn’t even bowl his full quota and conceded 46 runs in three overs with no wickets to speak of.
Zaheer was also expected to get India off to a great start; however, he flattered to deceive. He figures were 0/67 in 7 overs. Veteran pacer Javagal Srinath was so rattled that he ended up conceding 0/87 in 10 overs.
Anyway, Gujarat Titans ended up posting a mammoth 229/4, and RR, despite a good start fuelled by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, couldn’t get anywhere close to the target thanks to Rashid Khan’s brilliance in the middle overs.
So, it’s very important to set the tone early in an innings. Things have to be tidy and orderly. GT bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada were also hammered by Sooryavanshi in the first few overs, but there was no barrage of extras, and that eventually made all the difference. GT won the contest by 77 runs.
