India vs West Indies: Kuldeep Yadav unleashes ‘new weapon’ in Kolkata T20I - Watch
India beat West Indies by five wickets in the first Twenty20 international in Kolkata on Sunday with Dinesh Karthik making an unbeaten 31 and Kuldeep Yadav taking three wickets.
It was a brilliant show by left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav as India defeated West Indies by five wickets in the first T20I encounter at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.
The 23-year old returned with figures of 3/13 as as West Indies could manage just 109-8 in 20 overs - their lowest T20 total against India, after being invited to bat first.
The match was extra special for Kuldeep as he also reached the landmark of 100 wickets in the T20 format when he got his third victim by getting West Indies skipper Carlos Brathwaite leg before.
While Kuldeep is generally known for his varieties, he decided to try out a new kind of delivery on Sunday - a cross-seamed straighter one which clocked 107.7km/hr.
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With Kieron Pollard at the crease, Kuldeep bowled a straighter one which was much faster than his usual deliveries. Although the ball did not yield any wickets, Pollard was visibly surprised by the variation.
In the commentary box, both Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar took notice of the delivery and it featured heavily in their discussions.
“That’s a quick one, medium pace at 107.7km/hr. It’s a new delivery,” said Gavaskar.
“Straight crossed-seam delivery surprising the batsman. He otherwise bowls around 75 to 80km/hr when he tosses the ball up,” he added.
“It was incredible that last ball. Shahid Afridi use to bowl a quick ball at about 115-120. The boy is growing into a man,” Manjrekar said while talking about the delivery.