Rajasthan Royals (RR) left-arm pace bowler Jaydev Unadkat, who had a poor outing in the UAE during the Indian Premier League 2020 season, came back to form with a superb display of new-ball bowling (3/15) that shook the Delhi Capitals (DC) on Thursday night.
The pace bowler had conceded runs at 9.91 an over last season and his failure was exemplified in the October 17 match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), in which he lost his franchise a match they were certain to win.
RCB needed 35 off the last two overs as Unadkat bowled the second last over. AB de Villiers smashed him for three successive sixes as Unadkat conceded 25 runs in the over. RR lost the game and Unadkat was broken.
However, luck smiled on him on Thursday as he removed the powerful and international-level top-order of DC to give RR the advantage.
"I have been waiting for this, no better feeling than this for a bowler. It was something which we planned in our meetings, we wanted not to give them the extra bit of pace all the time. Their batsmen were all playing with hard hands," said Unadkat after picking the wickets of Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane to leave DC at 36/3 in the powerplay.
"There was good carry [on the pitch], there was some movement at the start too," he added on Thursday in the mid-match break.
