Whenever left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav is on song in white-ball cricket, he can produce gems which become unforgettable memories. On Wednesday, in the ODI series decider between India and Australia at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Kuldeep bowled a delivery which was totally unplayable to rattle the stumps of Alex Carey.
Carey looked to defend from the crease against a leg-break from Kuldeep in the 39th over which was pitched around leg-stump. But the ball spun away sharply to hit the top of off-stump, leaving everyone bewildered.
"I played the India A series here (against New Zealand A last year), so I knew the wicket was slow, so I was trying to spin the ball more. Those were the important wickets and especially I loved the one against Alex Carey," said Kuldeep in a mid-innings chat with broadcasters after picking 3/56 as India bowled out Australia for 269.
It also meant that this was the fifth time Kuldeep dismissed Carey in ODIs. He had previously outfoxed David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne to pick their scalps in Australia's innings at Chennai.
"I have been working on it, trying to bowl within the wickets, from there if I can spin the ball, so there is a lot of chance to get caught behind, there is a chance to get top-edge on slog just like David Warner did.
I was getting good drift, and bowling a lot of seam-up deliveries," he added. Kuldeep also backed the Indian batting line-up to chase down 270 on a slow pitch where shot making hasn't been an easy task.
"The way (Mitchell) Marsh started, probably thought they would close to 300. But the way Hardik bowled, he got 3 wickets and got us back in the game. But it's a slow track, so we have to bat carefully."