Was not afraid of bowling to Dhoni: Kuldeep

Photo: BCCI

New Delhi: Robin Uthappa displayed a master class along with captain Gautam Gambhir and the Knight Riders strolled their way to the top of the IPL table, beating Rising Pune Supergiant with 7 wickets in hand and 11 balls to spare. But before Uthappa’s front full pulls over mid-wicket and Gambhir’s back foot punches past point, there was wrist spin from the wrong hand that played a crucial role for the Knights. 

Kuldeep Yadav has indeed taken giant strides in cricket. After tormenting the Aussies on a Day 1 Dharamsala wicket in his debut Test, he has now replaced vastly experienced Piyush Chawla as the No. 1 Indian spinner for KKR. In fact it won’t be wrong to consider him numero uno as Sunil Narine has now settled to a new role of an all-rounder. On Tuesday he gave his captain another reason to bank on him – an option as a death bowler. 

“As a spinner, I believe if you pick up wickets then the opposition comes under a lot of pressure. Bowling the 18th over was tough but my captain had belief in me,” said a confident Kuldeep at the post-match press conference.

He sure exerted a lot of pressure on Pune by sending a dangerous looking Dhoni and an in-form Manoj Tiwary back to the pavilion on the highly important 18th over of the game. 

Dhoni was in demolition mode. He had already clobbered Chawla and Kuldeep in the 15th and 16th over. So what chances did Kuldeep have against the former Indian captain in the 18th over? Very slim. 

Asked whether he was under the pump while bowling to Dhoni, Kuldeep was as natural as his rare skill of Chinaman bowling.

“Obviously it was a big challenge bowling to Dhoni. I was under some pressure to be honest. But at the same time I was not afraid of him. I was not under fear of being hit for fours and sixes. I was just trying to give the ball some flight and trying to get him out rather thinking of containment,” said Kuldeep.

He deceived Dhoni with a beautifully tossed up wrong one. The mighty figure of Dhoni just ran past it and Uthappa did a fine job behind the stumps to whip the bails off.    

He backed that up with another wrong one. This time around the leg stump, drawing Manoj Tiwary out of his crease and deceiving him with the turn. Another stumping to Uthappa’s name. 

But the youngster is not ready to consider the wrong one as his most potent weapon.

“I really believe in my Chinaman bowling, rather than the wrong one or the flipper. I bowl the wrong one only when I’m looking to save runs or in need of a desperate wicket,” added Kuldeep.

Kuldeep was the most impressive bowler on display on Wednesday night, picking up 2 wickets for 31 runs and more importantly getting it right in the death overs.