KKR came close to breaching the IPL’s highest total of 277/3 posted by Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier this season. While Sunil Narine‘s swashbuckling 39-ball 85 set up a great platform, Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s maiden half-century and Andre Russell‘s whirlwind 41 powered KKR to the massive total.
But a major highlight of the DC bowling was Ishant Sharma‘s toe-crushing yorker to Russell that made the swashbuckling batsman fall onto the floor quite awkwardly.
By the time Russell could bring his bat down, the stumps were in an amazing state of mess. The leg peg had gone north and the middle peg went the opposite direction. While walking back, Russell even clapped acknowledging the great delivery by the veteran pacer.
On Sunday, the official handle of the IPL shared a video of Ishant Sharma talking about his magical yorker.
The video is titled: ‘The yorker that lit up Vizag!’ with a caption: ‘Ishant Sharma decodes THAT Perfect yorker to Andre Russell and the secret to mastering it.’
“See I knew that 5 fielders were inside the circle so if I miss I know where the ball has to travel. It is very difficult for a bowler to make the execution, so all I was thinking about was bowling a perfect yorker. In this format there is nothing as a good ball or a bad ball because even a good ball can be hit for a four and a bad ball can get you a wicket. So all I think about is that I have to execute more balls according to my plans. That’s all I think about. I don’t think too much about field set, ground dimensions, who’s batting in front of me. I just think about the particular ball I have to bowl and I have to execute. That’s all I think about,” Ishant said.
Talking about the yorker, Ishant added, “The more you practice the more you will be able to execute the yorker in a pressure situation. So I practiced a lot, trained a lot and that’s why I think I could execute that yorker perfectly.”
Chasing the improbable total, the Capitals were never in the hunt, having lost four wickets inside powerplay. Vaibhav Arora (3/27) struck early by removing Prithvi Shaw and Abhishek Porel while Mitchell Starc (2/25) finally got among the wickets. He got rid of his Australian teammates Mitchell Marsh and David Warner to reduce the Capitals to 33/4 in five overs.
DC skipper Rishabh Pant played some exhilarating shots, including hitting Venkatesh Iyer for 28 runs in the 12th over during his 23-ball half-century (55; 25b; 4×4, 5×6). He added 93 runs with Tristan Stubbs but his dismissal in the 13th over off Varun Chakravarthy (3/33) sealed the game for KKR.