Reminding fans of his terrific delivery to dismiss Babar Azam during the 2019 World Cup in England, India spinner Kuldeep Yadav bamboozle South African batter Aiden Markram in the similar way when the two met at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow, on Thursday during the first ODI of the series.
After an injury break, Kuldeep had returned to the ODI side on the Zimbabwe tour, where he picked up 3 wickets in as many matches. He had announced his return to form during the IPL, and his performance today in Lucknow further attested to the chinaman spinner rolling back his peak years with the Indian team from 2017 to 2019.
Against South Africa in the first ODI, Kuldeep came on to bowl in the 16th over, after Shardul Thakur had given India two breakthroughs. The ODI had been shortened because of a two-hour delay caused by the rain and had been curtailed down to 40-over-a-side.
In his very first over, Kuldeep had the experienced Markram puzzled with his balls turning both ways. He had no clue when the googly beat his outside edge; and was left gasping when a leg-spinner turned into him and got a leading edge. Before the wicket ball, he had also inside-edged a ball which had turned into him.
His struggle ended quickly, and Kuldeep deservedly got the wicket with a jaffa. Kuldeep gave good flight to the ball, which drifted across Markram bringing the batsman forward in a defensive shot. The ball turned big and shot in the gap between the bat and pad to hit the top of the off- and middle-stump. Markram, for a second, couldn’t believe what had happened as he stood there with disbelief on his face.
Watch: Kuldeep Yadav’s magical ball to bowl Aiden Markram
Absolute Beaut! 🙌 🙌@imkuldeep18 gets Aiden Markram out with a ripper! 👍 👍 #TeamIndia
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Kuldeep Yadav finished with figures of 1/39 in 8 overs. South Africa lifted themselves up from 110/4 in 22.2 overs to finish with 249/4 in 40 overs. David Miller, who scored 75* off 63 balls, was involved in a big partnership of 139* (106) with Heinrich Klaasen, who scored 74* off 65 balls.
