Marcus Stoinis ended up looking silly, getting hit on the thigh pad by a full toss, but the ball did tail back in late in its flight in Dharamsala. Josh Hazlewood had once again drawn some reverse, and bowled with the seam slanted towards fine leg, something he and Sunrisers Hyderabad quick Eshan Malinga have been doing of late in IPL 2026.
It was the start of the death overs in the chase. Punjab Kings needed 63 off 24 balls against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Stoinis and Shashank Singh were on a roll. This was the pitch on which Delhi Capitals needed 53 in the last four against PBKS six nights ago. They won with an over to spare.
This afternoon was different. RCB have generally been a cut above PBKS, and the absence of dew allowed them to get the precious little tail that they did. Two balls later, Hazlewood nailed what he was trying to do with Stoinis: late-swinging yorker at the base of the leg stump. In the end the yorkers were just too overwhelming for PBKS, who lost by 23 runs.
The ability to bowl yorkers has been one of the ingredients in RCB's successful league stage campaign. Both Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hazlewood are happy to resort to yorkers at the death. Rasikh Salam was a yorker bowler to begin with.
It is no surprise then that the RCB quicks have nailed more yorkers at the death than any other team this season: 54, according to analyst and writer Himanish Ganjoo's data. Only the Chennai Super Kings fast bowlers have bowled a higher percentage of yorkers at the death than RCB.
The RCB yorkers have gone at the second highest strike-rate this IPL, but that is not the point. Any team will take the strike rate of 115 they have conceded, and it is the high cost of the alternative types of deliveries that make the yorker so fruitful. That is why they are the third-best bowling side at the death. Only Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad are better, but they have had other weapons of mystery spin and reverse swing working for them.
There is a reason why teams don't try yorkers often. The chance of them going wrong is high, and when it goes wrong it becomes a full toss or a slot ball. If the perfect yorker is 0.5m-2.5m from the stumps, we can assume that anything fuller than 4m is an attempted yorker. In this IPL only the CSK fast bowlers have nailed half of their attempted yorkers; all other teams are behind.
Mumbai Indians tried bowling yorkers the most often but only 29% of their attempts landed on that perfect length. RCB have a success rate of 47%. Only CSK have done better than them. Overall, CSK's economy at the death is only slightly worse than RCB.
The presence of two experienced fast bowlers, one of them wearing the Purple Cap and bowling as well as he has ever done in T20s, makes the yorker a reliable option for RCB. Rasikh might not have that much experience but he has bowled an amazing number of yorkers in the nets and previously for DC.
With RCB landing about half their attempted yorkers, they go for about seven runs off six of those deliveries. It helps when defending totals. RCB won the IPL 2025 final after losing the toss and having to defend. This year they are one of the four teams to have won as much as they have lost when batting first.
If these three can keep executing their yorkers in the next three or four matches, RCB stand a good chance to defend the title.