Dasun Shanaka clean hitting in Harshal Patel bowling
Harshal Patel is the bowler who bowls around 135kph, he isn't someone who can bowl above 140 consistently. So he worked on his slower balls.
He was smart with his slower ball that had given him a dream IPL 2021 season, where he finished as the highest wicket-taker with 32 scalps which included a fifer and hat-trick against Mumbai Indians.
Some analysis on his slow ball Variation:
Dasun Shanaka vs Harshal Patel:
Dasun Shanaka dominated Harshal Patel in this series. He scored 49 runs in just 19 balls with the help of 3 fours and 5 sixes. Important to notice that his Strike rate is more than 250 against Harshal.
How Dasun Shanaka scored against slow ball:
Shanaka picked the slow ball from Harshal’s hand. He starts his bat swing only when the ball is about to pitch. He hit sixes with a normal bat swing when the ball is more than 130kmph.
19.5 Delivery in 2nd T20I: Speed of the ball 108.1kph
He is in the same position in the above two pictures. He is waiting till the ball is released. He doesn’t have any trigger moment.
He moved towards the ball with his front foot. Look at his bat. It's almost perpendicular in the above pic and then he pulls his bat behind his body. So, he wanted to swing his bat vertically and then must have decided to go with a diagonal one. That could be because of the dip.
He starts his bat swing only when the ball is about to pitch. He controlled his bat swing so he could hit the ball even after dipping.
The ball hit the sweetest part of the bat and it went for six.
16.6 Delivery in 2nd T20I: Speed of the ball 135.6kph
He is in the same position in the above two pictures. He is waiting till the ball is released. He doesn’t have any trigger moment. Similar to the analysis about slower ball.
His Bat flow is normal and In above analysis his bat swing is different.
His bat swing is different and adjusted according to the variation. He smashed Harshal Patel without any problem. That’s why he had success. Very few batsmen had success against Harshal Patel.