Kuldeep Yadav has been observing Saud Shakeel’s game and plotting his dismissal since the last few days. In the high-profile face-off here on Saturday, keeping in mind the Pakistan batter’s propensity to sweep, the India bowler foxed him with a leg-spinner that skidded off the pitch before rapping him on the pads.
There was loud shout for a leg-before and while the on-field umpire did not seem excited, the review went in favour of the Indians as technology showed the ball was going onto hit the middle and leg stumps.
In the mid-match break, Kuldeep Yadav said, “I’ve been watching Saud Shakeel the last couple of games and he’d been trying to sweep a lot. He thought that ball was slow but it skidded on.” Four balls later, in the same over, Kuldeep Yadav bowled Iftikhar Ahmed with a wrong’un as Pakistan slipped to 166 for five from 155 for two a little while ago, when Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan added 82 runs for the third wicket to build a strong platform.
“The wicket was a bit slow. We were focusing on the length. They were not attacking too much so I was just focusing on my pace and my variations,” Kuldeep Yadav said.
“I was bowling very well. Not too much width because of the field restrictions. They weren’t trying too much. Rizwan didn’t sweep me a lot so I wanted to make him play the bad shot.” Billed as the match of the tournament, Indian bowled out Pakistan for a lowly 191 in front of a packed Narendra Modi Stadium.
Unbelievable to play in front of this crowd. This atmosphere is crazy, playing against Pakistan and seeing close to 90,000 people here,” Kuldeep Yadav said of the atmosphere.
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