Varun spells incoming trouble for NZ batters

Varun Chakravarthy's celebratory reel on his Instagram handle plays a song from the 2016 Hindi film Udta Punjab. The lyrics loosely translate to "let the inner beast come out". At 33, India's mystery spinner did bring out his wicket-taking aggression here on Sunday night, the loop, deceit, drift and turn all foxing the New Zealand batters.

- Rasesh Mandani

DUBAI:

Chakravarthy snapped up five wickets in only his second ODI, bowling India to a 44-run victory.

His googly to dismiss Michael Bracewell leg before seemed the luckiest of his five scalps. Replays showed it may have been an attempted leg-spinner not coming back enough; a review would have saved the left-hander. The delivery played out like a googly, which even umpire Michael Gough couldn't spot. That's because the ball was bowled with a scrambled seam. Cricket analysts would have taken note. Just as they study every delivery from the release onwards. Many Kiwi batters, even the better players of spin, couldn't read Chakravarthy off his hand.

Hadn't Chakravarthy begun to bowl leg-breaks with the conventional seam position? His much-discussed switch to relying on more over-spin than side-spin came after batters began lining up against his googly, and his carrom ball became predictable.