After Rashid Khan had Shivam Dube holing out for 51 off 23 balls, with just ten balls left in Chennai Super Kings’ innings, on Tuesday, 33,400-odd spectators at Chepauk were expecting MS Dhoni to walk out to bat for the first time this season. The cameras also kept panning to the OG finisher, but instead, CSK unleashed their new finisher, Sameer Rizvi, on Rashid.The 20-year-old viciously slog-swept his first ball in the IPL, off arguably the best spinner in the world, for a six over square leg. Ravindra Jadeja, an outstanding finisher in his own right, Dwayne Bravo, who has also finished games for CSK in the past, and some other players and staff exchanged high-fives in the dug-out after Rizvi had announced his arrival.Three balls later, Rizvi dared to charge at a 96kph dart from Rashid and swung so hard that he cleared long-off, despite mis-hitting it. Chepauk started warming up to the new finisher. When Rizvi tried to smash another six, off Mohit Sharma in the last over, he was caught at the long-on boundary. The damage? Fourteen off six balls with the strike rate reading 233.33 in his first IPL innings.Related
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“When Rashid came to bowl in the 19th over, the coach [Stephen Fleming] told me if a wicket falls, you will go out to bat,” Rizvi told reporters in Chennai. “After that, it was set in my mind that it was the 19th over and it was a spinner bowling and if they are sending me at this point of the match, anyone who walks in will be expected to smash boundaries. So, in my head, only one thing was going on – I have to go out and hit it big – I was clear about that.”Rizvi had made his IPL debut in the season-opener against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Chennai last week. He didn’t get to bat in that game but admitted to feeling nervous in the field, in front of a packed Chepauk crowd. Facing Rashid, though, Rizvi showed no nerves.”Before I stepped onto the ground at the team meeting, I received my debut cap,” Rizvi recalled. “And that’s when I found out I was playing the first match. I was a little nervous when I was fielding but I never got to bat. But, in the second match, I mellowed down a bit and was not feeling nervous; there was no such pressure. I think I got used to the crowd after the match, so that’s why I was not feeling much pressure.”