At the start of the season, very few even had David Willey in their playing XI for RCB, let alone touting him to become a star for the franchise. However, injuries to Josh Hazlewood and Reece Topleu paved the way for the left-arm English seamer to get into RCB’s XI in their second match of the season, against Kolkata Knight Riders at the iconic Eden Gardens.
In his first over, the second of the match after Mohammed Siraj started with the new ball, David Willey conceded only 3 runs to the ultra-aggressive Rahmanullah Gurbaz and attacking left-hander Venkatesh Iyer.
In his second over then, David Willey made twin breakthroughs – and what sensational piece of bowling it was – to rattle the stumps of Venkatesh Iyer and Mandeep Singh. Nitish Rana could only survive the remainder of the over as the Englishman walked off to a raucous ovation from the Eden crowd, largely filled by people in red surprisingly, with a double-wicket maiden over.
If Iyer got a good ball – pitching short of length on off, seaming in sharply and staying a bit low to crash onto the top of the stumps – Mandeep got a peach from the 33-year-old Englishman: slanted across, swinging a bit, and then seaming away from the right-hander to beat the outside edge of his forward defence and hitting the off-stump.
Watch: David Willey smashes stumps of Venkatesh and Mandeep
Two in Two by David Willey!
A double wicket maiden by @david_willey 🔥🔥
Venkatesh Iyer and Mandeep Singh depart.
Live – https://t.co/V0OS7tFZTB #TATAIPL #KKRvRCB #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/FjuJoHWzLH
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 6, 2023
Cricket fans, and in particular RCB fans were delighted seeing this brilliant new-ball bowling from David Willey.
Here are some of the tweets:
David Willey in the Powerplay:
0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, W, W, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 4, 1, 1, 0. pic.twitter.com/FOfBEmohsY
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) April 6, 2023
Always wanted David Willey in RCB, he is finally arrived ❤️ pic.twitter.com/sn7CJdrSPn
— Prithvi (@Prithvi10_) April 6, 2023
David Willey on fire – 2 wickets in 2 balls.
RCB rocking at the Eden Gardens!
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) April 6, 2023
2 In 2 For David Willey! 😍 #KKRvsRCB pic.twitter.com/GdNKZg1kGR
— Prathamesh Avachare (@onlyprathamesh) April 6, 2023
David Willey got us the breakthrough. 🥹#RCBvsKKR pic.twitter.com/n0aJ88ZsEv
— Akshat (@AkshatOM10) April 6, 2023
David Willey, owning KKR in his 2nd over. 🔥#KKRvsRCB pic.twitter.com/i9OxwcAtf1
— Akshat (@AkshatOM10) April 6, 2023
King appreciate Willey #RCBvsKKR pic.twitter.com/gJFMqFNGuj
— India Fantasy (@india_fantasy) April 6, 2023
That is some delivery from Willey woah
— arfan (@Im__Arfan) April 6, 2023
New RCB Soul Willey🔥🔥🔥#RCB #KKRvsRCB pic.twitter.com/vPL3x6pSuH
— Aηυѕн ᴀʏᴀɴ ツ (@AnushAyan7) April 6, 2023
KKR vs RCB Playing XI and Substitute List for Impact Player:
KKR (Playing XI): Mandeep Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy
RCB (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Glenn Maxwell, Michael Bracewell, Dinesh Karthik(w), Shahbaz Ahmed, David Willey, Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj
KKR Substitutes: Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, N Jagadeesan, David Wiese
RCB Substitutes: Finn Allen, Sonu Yadav, Mahipal Lomror, Suyash Prabhudessai, Anuj Rawat
