Royal Challengers Bangalore bowler Navdeep Saini has grabbed all the limelight because of his brilliant performance in the Super Over against Mumbai Indians on Monday. The match last night was nothing more than a roller-coaster ride for Navdeep Saini.
During the Mumbai Indians innings, Navdeep turned out to be costly in his four overs as he conceded a whopping 43 runs and even went wicketless in his 24 deliveries. However, his poor performance didn’t stop Virat Kohli from giving him the chance to bowl in the Super-Over last night.
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Navdeep Saini didn’t disappoint the skipper this time and rose up to the occasion. He delivered a brilliant over to restrict Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya to just 7 runs and even took a wicket in the process.
Now we all know the brilliance of Navdeep Saini, thanks to his amazing performances in the last few matches for RCB, however, we don’t know his inspiring story.
Not many are aware of the fact that Navdeep Saini. Navdeep used to earn Rs. 200 per match. Yes, you read that right. It was in 2013-14 season, when Navdeep was first spotted by Delhi based cricketer Sumit Narwal, who saw him bowling yorkers at will in a tennis ball tournament and he was getting Rs 200 per match for that.
Sumit Narwal didn’t take too much time to inform about Saini to Delhi Captain Gautam Gambhir to check his performance at the nets. And what Gautam Gambhir saw at the ends was enough for him to get induldged in a heated arguemnt with then DDCA vice president Chetan Chauhan in order to get him into the Delhi team.
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In an interview, which dates back to 2017, Navdeep Saini had show full gratitude for the World Cup hero Gautam Gambhir who gave him a chance to play in first-class cricket. He had said that he ‘owes his life and success’ to Gambhir. He had said:
“I owe this life and my success to Gautam Gambhir. I was nobody and Gautam bhaiya did everything for me,”
Navdeep was all set to go to South Africa as a net bowler, however, he called Gautam Gambhir, who told him that Delhi needs him for the semi-final and his life changed forever.
“I was happy that I would go to South Africa but I called up Gautam bhaiya. He said Delhi needs you now for the semi-final and if you do well, you will be automatically in that Indian dressing room. I didn’t think twice,”
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“Gautam bhaiya, Ashish bhaiya (Nehra), Mithun Manhas rallied around me. They said what’s happening in the periphery shouldn’t be my concern. We will take care of that, you only bowl,”
And he bowled one of the most outstanding spells of recent times (7 for 79) and helped his team Delhi enter the final of Ranji Trophy in 2017 and defeating Bengal by an innings and 26 runs.
Everyone needs a hero, a mentor and for Navdeep Saini that man is Gautam Gambhir. Huge respect to Gautam Gambhir, this man never fails to impress us with his amazing work.
Unnati Madan
Unnati is a passionate cricket writer with a deep love and understanding of the game. As a female cricket writer, she brings a unique perspective to the sport, having had to overcome various challenges to pursue her passion for cricket. She has an experience of more than 5 years in the field of cricket writing.
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