Tilak Varma, the new stalker in town

Tilak Varma quietly slips into beast mode as he has a tricky chase to complete in T20Is. What Virat Kohli did against Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Melbourne is firmly embedded in the folklore of the format. Over the past year, Tilak has been building his own legacy as someone capable of conjuring similar brilliance to pull his team out of trouble.Saturday night in Christchurch, at Hagley Oval in two paces against a wily New Zealand attack, provided another example of Tilak’s unflinching temperament and commanding skills in crunch situations. Coming into bat in the 11th over with the score at 69/4, he made an unbeaten 51 off 26 balls to guide India to their target of 181 with four wickets and a ball to spare.His unbroken seventh-wicket partnership of 69 off 30 balls with Nitish Kumar Reddy (26 off 13) not only gave India a 2-0 lead in the five-match series, but also confirmed the tenacity of the team’s leadership with the capable batsman at No.8.It was an excellent chase for a simple reason. It was a far cry from the run-fest of modern T20 cricket. It took skill to deal with left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner’s exceptional 4/21 spell, awareness of big boundaries and unwavering belief when India were 112/6 with the ball still playing tricks.Namana Dhira’s menacing 17-ball 31 kept India in contention, but after his departure another wicket could have settled the match in New Zealand’s favour. Tilak’s six fours and solitary six came just when India needed them.It helped that New Zealand carried over their sloppy fielding from the opening match two days earlier. Just like on Thursday, another special knock from Glenn Phillips – 70 off 43 balls in the hosts’ 180/5 – was overshadowed by India’s young brigade.Most of these New Zealand players have seen young Indian T20 batsmen put up outrageous performances in the IPL. Perhaps some nervousness of the home team in the field stemmed from those memories. Tilak, however, credited head coach Gautam Gambhir and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak.“Gautam sir and Kotak sir said that the whole of India believes in you and that if I bat till the end we can win,” Tilak said after the win.The clarity with which he structures the chase is almost unnerving. Against spin, the emphasis was on finding gaps and running at full speed. “I was telling Naman that we would push hard when the spinners were bowling. Unfortunately, Naman got out in Mitchell’s last over. Otherwise we could have won in the 18th over,” Tilak said.Dhir’s release did not faze Tilak too much. The plan remained the same as Reddy, the last recognized batsman, departed. They resisted the temptation to clear the ropes as would be possible on smaller pitches in India, instead working the gaps and running hard to turn ones into twos. Big shots could await the pace bowlers at the death. This generation of IPL batsmen is wired in such a way that no chase seems unlikely until the equation calls for a six off every ball, with the final over yet to come. The panic button doesn’t seem to exist. Tilak and Reddy lived up to this billing. They took the game deep and with 46 needed from the last three overs, they backed themselves. Seventeen from 18 and 18 from 19 reduced the equation to 11 from six. Reddy’s game-winning two off the penultimate ball completed another runaway.