Kuldeep Yadav is on a roll. The India left-arm spinner seems to have found a second wind after a dip in form. The 28-year-old is routinely foxing opposition batters with his dip, turn and altered trajectory to snare crucial wickets for India at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. Kuldeep did exactly that on Sunday, as he cleaned up England captain Jos Buttler with a virtually unplayable delivery and left the defending champions five wickets down for just 54 runs in Lucknow. (Match Blog | Scorecard | Full Coverage)
Kuldeep bowled a flighted delivery that landed well outside off stump and prompted Buttler to try a punch through covers off the backfoot. But the ball gripped and turned radically to hit the top of middle stumps. Buttler was left completely bamboozled with the delivery, which many are hailing as the 'ball of the tournament'. You can watch the video below.
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Earlier, Indian batters struggled on a tricky surface to end up with a below-par but respectable total of 229/9 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium. After being asked to bat to first by Jos Buttler, the Indian innings soon began to unravel. By the end of the 12th over, the hosts were three down with just 40 runs on the board.
But skipper Rohit Sharma came up with a resilient and counter-attacking knock of 87 (off 101 balls) and along with KL Rahul (39 off 58), held the innings together. Later, Suryakumar Yadav (49 off 47) provided the final flourish to take India to a decent total. England, needing a win to keep their semi-final hopes alive, were given a new lease of life by the bowlers. David Willey led the attack brilliantly, taking three for 35. Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid also grabbed two wickets each.
