Data Shorts: Kamboj's death-overs efficiency checks off another key box for CSK

10.3 overs into MI's innings against CSK on Saturday, the host team's assistant bowling coach Sridharan Sriram was asked by the broadcasters as to what his team would prefer chasing. Having won the toss, MI stood at a strong 99/2 at that stage, and Sriram responded, "Under 200 would be brilliant, but we'd take anything around 210-220". Moments later, debutant Ramakrishna Ghosh dismissed Suryakumar Yadav - his first IPL wicket - but MI had enough firepower with Naman Dhir at the crease and Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya and two uncapped all-rounders to follow.

However, Jamie Overton, Anshul Kamboj and Noor Ahmad applied the squeeze while striking at crucial junctures to limit MI to 159/7. While Overton has had his overs split almost evenly in the middle-phase and the back end, Kamboj has been the standout death bowler this season. His role in IPL 2026 has been in stark contrast to what it was across 2024 and 2025, wherein he bowled 26 out of his 31.3 overs (82.54%) in the Powerplay.

Kamboj has bagged 10 wickets in Overs 16-20 in IPL 2026, three more than the next best. Of the 16 bowlers to have bowled at least eight overs in the phase, he tops the averages, strike-rates and the dot-ball percentage. His economy rate of 8.6 is bettered only by two others, and the false-shot percentage of 33.3% is only second to Overton's 34.4% with that cut-off. For further context, the average economy rate and dot-ball percentage in the tournament is 10.45 and 31.6% respectively.

Kamboj has been conceding a boundary roughly once in every five balls, which is inferior to Bhuvneshwar Kumar (once in 10) and Lungi Ngidi (one in eight), who have marginally better economy rates. His high dot-ball ratio (roughly one every two balls) compensates for the same. In fact, of all the instances of seamers delivering at least 10 overs at death in the Impact player era, his dot-ball percentage this season is only matched by Mohammed Siraj's in 2024.

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Kamboj was taken for runs at the backend against RCB in Bengaluru, on a day the hosts racked up 97/0 in the phase. That passage included a brilliant yorker from that uprooted Tim David's leg-stump, only for the replays to indicate he had overstepped. His combined returns in death overs thereafter read 9/61 in nine overs (ER: 6.77, Dot%: 50).

A key feature about his bowling has been switching his lengths across the two key phases of the game - Powerplay and death. With the new ball, all his four wickets have come off the good length deliveries or back-of-a-length, with 70 out of 84 balls (83.33%) pitched in that zone. In the last five overs, 73.7% of the deliveries are pitched full. The full tosses have travelled at 13.12 runs per over, but the yorkers and the ones erring slightly on the shorter side have yielded 4/49 at an economy of 7.35.

Two of his four wickets of either a good length or short in the phase came on Saturday, a response to the two paced nature of the surface, which was evident early during his new-ball burst. That remained CSK's template throughout the innings, with Overton thriving on his natural lengths to combine for the damage. The four CSK quicks returned 2/25 (ER: 5.26) via the balls pitched at back-of-a-length or shorter. Only 15 balls out of the 14 overs by quicks (17.85%) were pitched in the full zone.

The other distinctive feature is him operating predominantly from round the wicket angle, his sound execution making it tough for the batters to line-up for a big stroke.

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Historically, CSK's death bowling has revolved around their overseas quicks: Doug Bollinger in 2010 and 2011, Dwayne Bravo for a considerable part thereafter and Matheesha Pathirana in the last cycle. An Indian seamer taking up that role allows them to field Akeal Hosein in the XI (they had just three overseas in their line-up on Saturday) to build a well-rounded attack. Their comprehensive win keeps them in the hunt in the playoffs race, with a better run-rate than the other teams in the bottom six. Even if they miss out, they are probably getting closer towards building the right combination for the upcoming editions.