Punjab Kings (PBKS) all-rounder, Liam Livingstone turned out to be the star bowler for the team during their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 match against Delhi Capitals (DC) on Monday. He finished the inning with the bowling figures of 3/27 in four overs to be PBKS’ best bowler. But more than those figures, it was Livingstone’s style of bowling that left quite a lot of fans perplexed.
The England player employed off-spin to dismiss the DC opener, David Warner off the first ball of the innings, and also DC skipper, Rishabh Pant. Then, he dismissed Rovman Powell with a leg spin. His bowling prowess was a surprise to many and former Indian cricket team player Wasim Jaffer shared a hilarious meme with the following tweet.
Livingstone after dismissing Warner and Pant with off spin and Powell with leg spin #DCvPBKS #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/ZL7vMmY5x8
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) May 16, 2022
In the match, Arshdeep Singh and Livingstone scalped three wickets each as PBKS managed to restrict DC to a below-par score of 159 for 7 despite Mitchell Marsh’s match-winning fifty, after DC lost opener David Warner (0) off the first ball of the innings. It was Marsh, who anchored the DC innings as he completed his fifty with a boundary in the 17th over.
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The move to open the bowling with Liam Livingstone (3/27) worked as he removed Warner, who gave a sitter to Rahul Chahar at the backward point. Marsh and Sarfaraz then tried to steady the ship with the latter Sarfaraz playing a brutal knock against the left-arm orthodox bowler Harpreet Brar (0/29), hammering him for a maximum, a slog sweep, and two successive boundaries, as Delhi fetched 15 runs in the third over.
Sarfaraz hammered five boundaries and a six as Delhi raced to the 50-run mark in the fifth over. But Sarfaraz’s cameo ended after he mistimed a lofted shot off Arshdeep Singh (3/37) with Chahar taking a running catch.
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Then Marsh and Lalit mixed caution and aggression. At 86/2 after 10 overs, but Punjab pegged back DC, by grabbing three quick wickets and reducing the opposition to 112/5. Livingstone had his third wicket when he removed Rovman Powell (2), whose skier was caught by Shikhar Dhawan in the long-off region. Wickets kept tumbling for Delhi even as Punjab bowlers conceded 43 runs in the last five overs.
