Arshdeep Singh starred for the Punjab Kings in their close 7-run victory (DLS) over the Kolkata Knight Riders in Mohali, on Saturday, to kick off their IPL 2023 campaign on a positive note.
The left-arm seamer took 3 key wickets of KKR batters, those of Mandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, and Venkatesh Iyer. Arshdeep was specifically impressive with his usage of the short balls; keeping the line terrific and the length immaculate so that it reached the batter in the on their chests and shoulders which made them mistime and mishit their pull shots.
Arshdeep dismissed opener Mandeep Singh on the first ball of his new ball spell, before dismissing Anukul Roy on the last ball of the same over. Roy had been sent in at number 3 to bat with positive intent in the chase of 192.
On the 3rd ball of the over, he smashed Arshdeep over mid-on for a four, and on the next ball as well, he drilled it straight to the cover fielder. Arshdeep Singh surprised the batter with a short one, who this time pulled it straight to the fielder positioned at mid-wicket on the edge of the circle.
Instead of celebrating the wicket animatedly, in his usual airplane celebration, to Anukul Roy, Arshdeep Singh then just gave a steely-eyed death stare as a send-off.
The video of Arshdeep Singh’s solid death stare to Roy has gone viral with claiming it to be the fire from the left-arm speedster.
Watch: Arshdeep Singh’s death stare to Roy as a send-off
Jhoom utha hain #SaddaPunjab dekhke Arshdeep paaji ki gendbaazi lajawab 🔥#PBKSvKKR #JioCinema #IPLonJioCinema #TATAIPL #TATAIPL2023 | @arshdeepsinghh pic.twitter.com/pzlC53LcVV
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) April 1, 2023
Arshdeep Singh was awarded the Player of the Match for his brilliant bowling figures of 3/19 in a high-scoring encounter.
Revealing the reason why he gave this send off to Anukul, Arshdeep Singh revealed: “He was my batch mate in under-19 cricket. He started to hit me straightaway so I wanted to show aggression. He was also showing aggression so my aggression also came out a bit”
Speaking on his short-ball ploy, he said: “I tried to be unpredictable. The wicket was good for batting so I was mixing it up. Players are expecting that I will bowl yorkers so I tried to surprise them a bit by bowling bouncers. There was some rain around so the wicket had become skiddy, so I was using making use of the conditions on offer.
“I am enjoying myself and the atmosphere in the dressing room is very good. Going ahead, we will try to keep enjoying and keep winning games for our side. (On Shikhar Dhawan) He has created a very good atmosphere amongst us and we are loving it.”
