Data Shorts: Akeal's new-ball expertise, in numbers

Shortly after Dewald Brevis was bounced out by Ashwani Kumar in the 11th over of CSK's innings , young Prashant Veer was seen padded up and shadow practicing in the dugout. Akeal Hosein, one of the four other Impact subs, was seen seated with pinnies on. Sanju Samson and Kartik Sharma added 43 (35) for the fifth wicket - a partnership, in hindsight, perhaps more about time spent in the middle than the scoring rate. It enabled the visitors to go in with an in the second half.

Two of the previous three games at Wankhede in IPL 2026 had witnessed 200-plus targets being gunned down without much fuss. MI responded with 222/5 to RCB's 240/4 in the other, not to mention England fell seven short chasing 254 in the T20 World Cup 2026 semi-final last month. All of that summed up the value of an additional bowling option for the visitors.

Akeal vindicated that call, dismissing young Danish Malewar for a golden duck on the final ball of the first over. The first five deliveries he bowled at Quinton de Kock were delivered at an average speed of 91.3 kmph, three of them being arm-balls. The Malewar wicket came to a much slower one (86.7 kmph) - a flighted full-length conventional off-spinner that turned sharply and took the outside edge through to the keeper. It did help that Mukesh Chowdhary removed de Kock in the next over, for the left-hander had a positive matchup against Akeal before the game (148 off 78, five dismissals, SR: 189.7), and had already struck a six in the first over.

Akeal then castled Naman Dhir with one that beat the outside edge to shatter the stumps, leaving MI at 11/3 by the end of the third over. It was just the third instance of a spinner delivering a wicket maiden in the powerplay in the IPL since 2020. He returned later to dismiss Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma to set it up for MI's biggest ever IPL defeat. The decisive impact though was made much earlier.

Over the years, Akeal has mastered the art of bowling with the new ball in T20s - a rare skillset among finger spinners. Of the 260 innings he has bowled in T20s, he's taken the first over in more than half of them (139) and bowled the second on 37 occasions. Overall 48% of his overs have come within the first six overs of the game, a number that rises to 51.8% since 2023. Even in the Big Bash League, wherein the Powerplay has been shrunk to the first four overs since the introduction of the Power Surge rule, 19 of his 58 overs (one-third) have come in that phase. He's opened the bowling in 12 out of 15 matches in the BBL, taking the first over in eight of them.

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The two major variations are the stock ball and the quicker one (akin to seam-ups), coupled with a smart change of pace to aid mid-air drift that gives him great results. His consistency makes him a potent weapon regardless of him being up against a right-hander or a left-hander, with identical strike-rates and respectable economy rates against both. He has bagged 74 wickets in the first six overs in T20s since 2023, well clear of the next best Maheesh Theekshana (55) among spinners.

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A combination of specialist overseas left-arm spinners of two different varieties has been extremely rare in the IPL; only Shakib Al Hasan and Brad Hogg (for KKR) have done that previously. Even rare is an overseas spinner who predominantly bowls in the Powerplay. Of the 15 to have sent down at least 100 overs in the IPL till date, only two have a 30%-plus split of overs with the new ball: Theekshana (35.6%) and Shakib (30.3%).

Noor Ahmad has excelled in the middle-overs for CSK, while Anshul Kamboj has delivered in the back end, but their bowlers had conceded at 10.27 an over in the Powerplay across their first six games. With Khaleel Ahmad ruled out, Akeal's exploits in their wins over KKR and MI make a strong case for his consistent inclusion in their starting XII.