Bhuvi and his variations too tricky to handle for the Capitals as he used the conditions to his advantage to good effect.
Bhuvi and his variations with the ball were a major difference as the Delhi Capitals found it difficult to line his bowling up.
The Delhi Capitals (DC) were doing well on a challenging pitch until Bhuvneshwar removed Ashutosh Sharma, one of the batsmen DC relies on for quick runs in the end of the innings, and KL Rahul, who you would expect to take the innings deep, in the 17th over. As Anil Kumble stated, “Bhuvi had the perfect answer”—and not for the first time.
Kumble full of praise for Bhuvi and his variations
“He’s always been very special as a bowler. Whichever team he has played for, he picks up wickets in the powerplay, he’s learnt the tricks and the trade of what needs to be done in the back end, and he’s very consistent,” Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out show
“Barely a game where the batters get under him and then put him under pressure. On a surface like this, he bowled the perfect second spell. The crucial wicket of KL Rahul. KL Rahul, the idea was probably to take it deep and then target the faster bowlers and target the last three or four overs, maximise those four overs. And Bhuvi had the perfect answer.”
Bhuvi’s resurgence
It has never been Bhuvneshwar’s style to make headlines or draw a lot of attention. As Kumble stated, his hallmark has been his ability to stay consistent and perform to the best of his abilities every day, regardless of the team or format.
Bhuvneshwar, who is 35 years old and appears to be out of the picture in terms of international cricket, is still developing as a white-ball bowler. You may not have noticed him, but he has been a great support for Purple Cap holder Josh Hazlewood and Krunal Pandya, who also appears to have changed with his new squad.
With nine games played, Bhuvneshwar has taken 12 wickets at an economy rate of 8.35. He has only been costly in two games this season, one against the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the high-scoring Wankhede Stadium and another against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at home in a match that RCB won, and there was only one game in which he failed to take a wicket.
“Sometimes they [the batters] expect the yorkers or maybe the slower ball; he uses the knuckleball. So he’s got two-three really good variations,” Jaffer said. “And it’s very tough to line Bhuvi up [thinking] that he is only going to bowl this delivery.”