MATCH STORY
Follow UsWhen the groin injury concerns of Kuldeep Yadav surfaced a few games ago this season, it felt like déjà vu for the Capitals. They had already suffered from the injury-induced absence of Anrich Nortje in the previous IPL seasons, and with this new concern rising, another season was threatening to derail even before it properly began.
The reason is simple. As a team, Delhi Capitals depend a lot more on their star players, both in batting and bowling, because of serious issues with their team construction and management. That was exemplified in the first game, where they lost a winning position against Punjab Kings because of Ishant Sharma’s injury and being a bowler short.
Things have only gone downhill from there for the Capitals bowling attack. Anrich Nortje is going through a horrible phase with the ball this IPL, and other Indian pacers, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar and Rasikh Salam, have not been trustworthy enough, game in and game out.
Except for the game against CSK, where almost their entire attack bowled well, DC pacers have leaked runs at an economy of 11 and have averaged 37.9 runs per wicket. This puts immense pressure on their two spinners, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav. In the absence of Kuldeep, Axar’s efficacy as a striking option in the middle overs is also jeopardised to an extent, as Kuldeep’s wicket-taking ability is usually aided by Axar’s miserly bowling and vice versa.
Hence, saying that Kuldeep’s return was awaited with great anticipation in the DC camp won’t be an exaggeration.
But even DC wouldn’t have expected him to make a comeback in this fashion, which made him feel like an oasis for DC’s perennially parched throat.
Right after the powerplay where Lucknow Super Giants scored 57/2, Rishabh Pant got both his spinners to bowl in tandem. KL Rahul was batting like a dream, with his strike rate being above 200, and it felt like Lucknow will again score big and defend with ease, just like they did against Gujarat Titans.
But then Kuldeep Yadav happened to them.
Marcus Stoinis is the fulcrum of LSG’s middle order and is no mug against wrist spin. He strikes at 139 and averages 33 against the bowling type, but Kuldeep is not a regular wrist spinner. Hence, when he flighted the ball and pitched it full to him outside off, Stoinis fell into the trap. The ball was bowled slow and it dipped, which Stoinis’s big swipe failed to combat, and so the right-hander was caught at backward point.
The next ball to Nicholas Pooran was a work of genius.
Pooran is averaging 89 this season with a strike rate of 167.9. These are godly numbers considering the format, and a few overs of Pooran would have taken a heavy toll on DC’s bowlers, and on a pitch like Lucknow, that would have had a detrimental impact on the visitors.
Kuldeep bowled it full, the ball dipped like it usually does for him, and so well disguised was the googly that Pooran played for the leg break that turns away from him. That took his bat away from the line of the ball and created enough room for the ball to go through the gate and crash into the stumps.
Pooran was beaten all ends up. The stump was lying on the ground, broken. Kuldeep’s next dismissal was Rahul, and that came in the next over itself.
Kuldeep pitched it on a length and turned it away from the right-hander, who went for the big cut shot but could only manage a faint nick to the keeper.
Beating the batter in the air and with the dip. Then, beating them with turn and using his bowling smarts to get a wicket at the end. Kuldeep, in the space of three dismissals, had shown what DC were missing in the last three games.
If you look at his pitch map and beehive from today’s game, you’ll find that this glitzy show of skill from Kuldeep was built on the discipline of his line and length, as he hardly erred away from the good and full-length areas.
Kuldeep Yadav wished to be a pacer like Wasim Akram at the beginning of his career. But he turned out to be a left-arm leg spinner. Today, when he broke the stump after cleaning up Pooran, he might have achieved his childhood dream. Meanwhile, Delhi finally got its oasis back, which quenched its thirst for a win.
