Rishabh Pant reveals why Kuldeep Yadav did not bowl his entire quota of Overs despite impressive performance versus Punjab yesterday.
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During the 64th match of the ongoing 15th season of the Indian Premier League at the DY Patil Sports Academy Stadium in Mumbai, the Delhi Capitals (DC) have defeated the Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 17 runs to move up to the fourth spot in the points table, in what was a must-win match for both the sides.
En route the target of 160 handed by the DC, Punjab batters did get off to a decent enough start with Jonny Bairstow (28 off 15) hitting some exquisite shots. However, their fun was short-lived as post Bairstow’s wicket in the 4th Over, Shikhar Dhawan (19 off 16) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (4 off 5) too got Out within a span of two deliveries, as the scorecard read 54/3 after the end of the Powerplay.
With their skipper Mayank Agarwal (0 off 2) too following suit, and the in-form Liam Livingstone (3 off 5) getting back in the hut as well, PBKS lost half their side within eight Overs, with another 100 runs still remaining to be scored.
Wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma (44 off 34) did try his best to get closer to the target, but it was never going to be enough with the required run rate inching to 13 runs per Over. Ultimately all PBKS could manage was post 142/9 on the board in their 20 Overs.
Shardul Thakur (4-0-36-4), Axar Patel (4-0-14-2), and Kuldeep Yadav (3-0-14-0) were the stars for DC with the ball.
Rishabh Pant reveals why Kuldeep Yadav did not bowl his entire quota of Overs
Kuldeep Yadav, despite getting rid of the in-from Punjab batter Liam Livingstone, and Harpreet Brar (1 off 2) later, had bowled his three Overs by the 12th Over, while leaking runs at just 4.7 runs per Over.
With the sluggish nature of the pitch in today’s match, one would have expected Yadav to complete his quota of Overs. But, Pant decided otherwise.
During the post-match presentation, when asked about the reason for the same, Pant revealed that he had kept Kuldeep’s Over for the back-half of the innings; but with dew seeping in, he decided not to hand the Chinaman an important Over in the end.
“We saved him (Kuldeep) for back half, then the dew came in so we didn’t want to give a massive over for someone. It’s a 50-50 call,” remarked Pant.
The DC skipper was criticized during his side’s match against KKR as well, when he had similarly decided to not complete Kuldeep’s quota of Overs, despite his bowling figures reading 3-0-14-4, and with a realistic chance for him to bag his maiden five-wicket haul in IPL.
