NEW DELHI: It was 405 days back that Radha Dayal underwent the pain of a mother watching her son Yash Dayal, trying to redeem himself at Motera stadium in Ahmedabad. The bowler’s dreams were shattered when Rinku Singh, his former team mate in Uttar Pradesh, hit him for six fours in consecutive balls and took over the minds of the country. However, despite this setback those who really believed in Dayal’s ability were not swayed by social media fickleness. His supporters knew better than this as he has shown what he is worth on field since then.
Dayal’s resilience and talent earned him a pacer contract from BCCI recently.
On Saturday, against two of IPL most dangerous finishers Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja, he defended just 17 runs showcasing his improvement and abilities. Thus came to an end the remarkable journey of the young bowler from abyss to sky high success.
“God’s plan baby” Rinku wrote on his instagram page and it couldn’t have been better put by anyone else except him.
But barely had the last ball of that eventful 20th over gone past than Dayal called his mother Radha across the border.
In a video call Yash would ask his mum “Kaisa feel kar rahi ho (how are you feeling mom?)”. After all she had been celebrating since midnight.
Chandrapal was quick to tell that ‘maine mom ko kaha tha ki main MSD ko rok hi loonga(I told my mom I will stop MSD)’ The Accountant General’s office retiree at Allahabad in 2019 played some club cricket himself- mostly medium pace stuff though.
Amidst all this difficult period after Rinku tore into sixes one after another on April 9 night at Ahmadabad; it was only Yash’s father Chandrapal, 64 who stood by his side as a single source of support.
He recollected,” Woh darawana sapna firse aa raha tha jab Dhoni ne pehli ball pe sixer mara (That terrifying dream of last season started to haunt me when Dhoni hit that 110-m six off the first ball).”
“But I knew inside me that this time something good will happen. It is all because of him and he deserves full credit. The God has been so kind.”
Already a buzzing morning for Chandrapal, who is trying to attend to each and every phone call from relatives, friends and well-wishers.
“Khana Khane ko time hi nahin mila hai itne sare phone calls aa rahe hain subah se” Chandrapal told PTI from Allahabad. my wife or daughter have spoken with him but i am yet to speak with him.
With noise and celebrations engulfing the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, he could not talk properly and returned the call from his hotel after waking up around noon on Sunday.
Something has changed for Yash since the last season when Gujarat Titans dropped him from the playing XI.
Also, he was ill and his father took on the role of a motivator.
He told me, “Yuvraj Singh hit Stuart Broad six times in 2007 T20 World Cup and from there he became great bowler.”
“He is fully talented by God; I don’t even have to say anything regarding cricket like hand or footwork. He is complete fast bowler,” said the proud dad.
I ensured that no chances of depression or giving up would occur after that setback by shutting all noise around him and making sure that he remained mentally strong throughout.
Then every day in the morning they went together to Madan Mohan Malviya Stadium in Civil Lines as he would watch him train for hours in dual shifts (morning and evening) while his elder sister Shuchi who’s a dietician used to take care of his diet.
Dayal had worked hard on his fitness and mental strength in his journey to redemption, starting from curbing his sweet carvings through giving up ice cream and the favourite mutton keema with biryani dishes.
“His fitness will speak volumes about this. They also kept faith in RCB while playing him continuously so as to keep improving his trust,” Chandrapal added.
“This player can play all formats. There are not my words these,” Zaheer Khan, one of India’s great players, also wanted him before t20 world cup. This is just a start,” he said
Handy batter: Coach
Yash’s childhood coach Amit Pal who serves as deputy sports officer UP government at Kanpur states that apart from being an excellent fielder, this 26 year old is a very good lower order batter too.
He has played some meaty innings for UP state team and if given chances can become a good batsman. He is highly resilient. It requires a lot of mental toughness to stop a player like Dhoni, Jadeja from scoring those runs. He has gone through so much in his journey.”
