Delhi Capitals (DC) have a good group of bowlers for the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season. Before the players’ auction in Dubai, the team kept some of their bowlers: Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, and Axar Patel. During the auction, they got Jhye Richardson from Australia by spending INR 5 crore.
With this balanced bowling team, Delhi hopes to do well in the 2024 IPL. Before, famous bowlers like Glenn McGrath, Zaheer Khan, Mohammed Shami, Morne Morkel, Amit Mishra, and Imran Tahir played for Delhi, but their bowling wasn’t seen as strong as teams like Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI).
In the next competition, DC wants to show disciplined bowling and improve their reputation. With the 2024 IPL coming soon, cricket fans should remember Delhi’s top five bowling performances in the league.
Here are DC’s 5 best bowling performances of all time:
5. Umesh Yadav’s 3/19 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in 2012
In 2010, Umesh Yadav started playing cricket in the IPL team Delhi Capitals. In 2012, when Delhi Capitals won 11 games and were at the top, Umesh Yadav played a very important role. In their last game against Punjab Kings, Yadav helped Delhi Capitals win by six wickets.
Delhi’s temporary captain Mahela Jayawardene chose to let Punjab bat first after winning the coin toss. Yadav bowled really well on the fast pitch in Dharamsala. He got two Punjab players, Mandeep Singh and Adam Gilchrist, out with low scores. In his third over, he also got David Hussey out, making it hard for Punjab to score. With Yadav’s bowling figures of 3 wickets for 19 runs, Delhi managed to limit Punjab to 141 runs. Then, Delhi easily chased the target and won the match with six wickets left. This win made Delhi finish the league stage at the top of the table.
4. Rajat Bhatia’s 4/14 against Deccan Chargers in 2009
Rajat Bhatia was really important for the Capitals’ bowling team from 2008 to 2010. In 2009, he had his best game in a big tournament. He did great against Deccan Chargers in Durban. He got 4 wickets and only gave away 15 runs, helping Delhi win by 12 runs.
The Chargers were doing well, needing only 25 runs from 18 balls with 6 wickets left. But then Bhatia bowled amazingly. He got rid of Andrew Symonds and Dwayne Smith in his second over. Then, Ashish Nehra got another key wicket, Venugopal Rao. In the last over, Bhatia finished off the game by getting two more wickets. He was given the Player of the Match award for his fantastic bowling.
3. Kuldeep Yadav’s 4/14 against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2022
Kuldeep Yadav became a member of DC in 2022 and in his debut season for the 2020 runners-up, he recorded his best bowling innings of IPL against his former team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Wankhede Stadium.
At the iconic venue, Delhi won the toss and decided to bowl first. After the early fall of openers Aaron Finch and Venkatesh Iyer, Kuldeep picked up the scalps of Baba Indrajith and Sunil Narine to trouble KKR. The leggie’s next victim was Kolkata skipper Shreyas Iyer, who was striving to build a solid partnership with Nitish Rana and help Knight Riders recover from the disastrous start.
Kuldeep also fetched the prized wicket of Andre Russell, who failed to open his account in the game. In his three-over spell, the spin wizard took 4/14 and helped his team restrict Kolkata to a low total of 146. Eventually, DC won the game by four wickets and Kuldeep became the Player of the Match.
2. Kagiso Rabada’s 4/29 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in 2020
Kagiso Rabada played for Delhi Capitals (DC) from 2017 to 2021 in IPL, and since 2022, he has been playing for Punjab Kings (PBKS). In 2020, he was really good, winning the Purple Cap for being the top wicket-taker. In a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), he bowled amazingly, helping Delhi win by 17 runs.
In the match, DC scored 189 runs thanks to great batting from Shikhar Dhawan (78 runs off 50 balls) and Marcus Stoinis (38 runs off 27 balls). When they defended their score, Rabada got rid of David Warner on the first ball he bowled.
This early success boosted Stoinis, who then dismissed Priyam Garg and Manish Pandey quickly. Rabada also took out Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, and Shreevats Goswami in his last over, finishing with the best bowling figures of 4 wickets for 29 runs in four overs.
1. Amit Mishra’s 5/17 against Deccan Chargers in 2008
During the first IPL season in 2008, Amit Mishra did something amazing in a cricket match. He bowled three batters out in a row, which is called a hat-trick. This happened when his team, the Delhi Capitals, played against the Deccan Chargers at a stadium called Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, which is now called Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Amit Mishra, along with two other good bowlers, Glenn McGrath from Australia and Farveez Maharoof from Sri Lanka, played well and helped the Capitals stop the Chargers from scoring too many runs. Mishra bowled really well and got two important players from the Chargers team, Shahid Afridi and Herschelle Gibbs, out.
In the last part of the match, Mishra bowled three more players from the Chargers team out in three consecutive balls. This made him only the second bowler in the tournament to get a hat-trick. It was a great achievement and made him famous in the record books.
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