Prasidh Krishna started South Africa’s downfall in Visakhapatnam, and Kuldeep Yadav was the one who landed the final blows. The left-arm wrist spinner didn’t have favourable conditions in Ranchi or Raipur but still managed to take 4 and 1 wickets, respectively.
In the India vs South Africa 3rd ODI, with the Men in Blue finally winning the toss, Kuldeep got a chance to bowl in the first innings with the dew factor out of the equation. Prasidh took 3 wickets in the space of 4-5 overs and broke the momentum. Then came Kuldeep and ended any hopes of revival.
He duped Dewald Brevis, Marco Jansen and other Proteas batters on multiple occasions. They just weren’t able to read his googly. He was finally rewarded in the 39th over, when he got both Brevis and Jansen out.
This took away the chances of the Proteas posting any big total. A few overs later, Kuldeep took Corbin Bosh and Lungi Ngidi’s wickets and went past Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath to claim his 11th 4-wicket haul in ODI cricket.
Most 4-wicket haul for India in ODIs
- 16 – Mohammed Shami
- 12 – Ajit Agarkar
- 11 – Kuldeep Yadav
- 10 – Anil Kumble
- 10 – Javagal Srinath
Kuldeep has been South Africa’s tormentor-in-chief for a while now. He takes 3 wickets per match against South Africa and averages under 18. In his ODI career, Kuldeep usually takes 2 per game and has an average of over 26.
Kuldeep Yadav ODI stats vs South Africa
- Matches: 16
- Wickets: 36
- Avg: 17.58
- SR: 21.3
- ER: 4.95
“We started very well. Arshdeep and Harshit started well; they kept a tight line in the first 7-8 overs, and then the spinners came. It was actually gripping a bit. We were trying to mix the pace. Bowling with the dry ball is a luxury. Because of the rule change, there’s only one ball after 34 overs; the ball was holding, and it wasn’t easy to score runs. I mixed it up with the variations, bowling scrambled seam, leg-spin, googly, and flipper, just trying to vary the variations,” Kuldeep said during the mid-innings break.
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