During the 49th match of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Kolkata, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Kuldeep Yadav brushed aside his form to register a match-winning spell, his first of this season.
Before this match, the 23-year old left-arm chinaman bowler had clinched nine wickets in 12 matches, numbers that obviously don’t suit his reputation. The team management persisted with him and he eventually repaid their faith on him tonight.
Kuldeep Yadav was introduced into the attack in the eight over of the innings. On the second delivery that he bowled, he saw Ajinkya Rahane (11) playing an unorthodox and uncalled for shot only to be bowled on a delivery which wouldn’t have caused him much harm had he played with a straight bat.
Continuing in the same fashion, Kuldeep Yadav took another wicket on the second ball of his second over. It was Jos Buttler (39) who played the reverse sweep this time. Unlike Rahane, he made contact with the ball but ended up hitting it straight to Javon Searles at short third-man. Apart from dismissing Rahane and Buttler, Kuldeep Yadav had also put a halt to the scoring rate.
On the first delivery of his third over, Kuldeep Yadav’s googly went through the defences of Stuart Binny (1) after he failed to pick the variation altogether. Dinesh Karthik persisted with his most successful bowler of the night, who yielded results in his last over as well.
On the penultimate delivery of his spell, Kuldeep Yadav caught and bowled Ben Stokes (11) to further dent the visitors. He ended up with bowling figures of 4-0-20-4. Watch the highlights of his spell:
https://twitter.com/videos_shots/status/996424304693669888
Watch how Twitterati reacted on his spell:
4 wickets for Kuldeep Yadav. Tossing it up beautifully. So good to see. And, sadly, will count as a horror season with the bat for Stokes.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 15, 2018
#RR, once again, proving to be a one-man army with the bat. Law of averages had to make an appearance at some stage….super comeback from #KKR Courtesy Kuldeep. Now to squeeze them dry. #IPL #KKRvRR
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) May 15, 2018
Ever since @anilkumble1074 mentioned Kuldeep wants to get Stokes caught and bowled he had me hooked.
What a man.
What a panel, @StarSportsIndia Dugout.— Abhishek Mukherjee (@ovshake42) May 15, 2018
Kuldeep picks up Buttler and Stokes. #INDvENG #nothingtoadd #getthehintVirat
— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) May 15, 2018
https://twitter.com/_Fuchhu/status/996416457184428032
4-20 wat a spell by Kuldeep Yadav. Wow!!
— dk. (@d1ksha_) May 15, 2018
Stokes is back too.
Kuldeep youuuuu beautyyyyy.
4 Wickets what a spell.#KKRvRR— Arman (@arman6182) May 15, 2018
#KKRvRR Another Yadav masterclass show. Yesterday it was Umesh and today it's Kuldeep. Well bowled 👌
— roshimon (@roshimon1) May 15, 2018
Kuldeep Yadav you beauty! #IPL
— naeemah (@NaeemahBenjamin) May 15, 2018
Joss the boss out … Kuldeep yadaw still two in two over….The big man gone..#KKRvRR #KKRHaiTaiyaar @KKRiders
— I'm Shahid (@ImShahid8) May 15, 2018
