Delhi Capitals is not exactly a reliable franchise to support. If you are one of their fans, more often than not, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is not a great experience, season in and season out. This season too, keeping in line with their performances over the years, they started well by winning their first two matches, but it didn’t take them long to come crashing down to the ground as they lost to Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings rather badly. But amid this see-saw, medium pacer Mukesh Kumar has been absolutely terrific.
There has not been a single game where Mukesh hasn’t left a good impression. In the team’s opening game against Lucknow Super Giants, he returned figures of 0/17 in three overs. Against Mumbai Indians, he got rid of Ryan Rickelton and Tilak Varma early on and finished with 2/26 in three overs. Against GT, a match that they should have won, he was expensive with figures of 2/55, but he wasn’t entirely ineffectual, having taken the wickets of Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar.
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Against CSK, he came up with 0/37. David Miller dropped Ayush Mhatre off his bowling towards the end of the innings, it may be noted. Against RCB today at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, he continued his good work. Against one of the most prolific batting line-ups in the league, he conceded just 32 runs and got rid of the dangerous and in-form RCB captain, Rajat Patidar.
All this is no fluke. In a league which has a reputation for being a bowlers’ graveyard — all thanks to flat decks and short boundaries — Mukesh appears to have cracked the code. Of course, it’s impossible to be potent all through, but more often than not, he will trouble the opposition.
Mukesh brings a lot to the table as a bowler. First and foremost, he has the ability to swing the ball both ways, especially away from batsmen, and on a conducive deck, he will be more than a handful. He runs in lazily and has a smooth bowling action, which can mislead batsmen. He can bowl up to 140 kmph, but his action is such that you wouldn’t imagine it, and that can make you commit errors.
He mixes his pace to boot. It’s a skill that can come in handy on slow wickets or as a variation on a flat wicket against a batsman on the rampage. He can very well surprise with his slowers and cutters effectively.
How else do you explain this?
And then one important tactic he often employs to derail, especially a batsman who’s going great guns, is to bowl wides. It’s difficult to say whether he does it deliberately, but it has often proved to be effective. Sometimes such balls take the enthusiasm out of batsmen, especially if they are back-to-back, and confuse them and derail their momentum no end.
The ensuing deliveries, now that the batsman is confused, often go unpunished, and they are surprisingly the regular ones. He did that against RCB too, and if Delhi end up returning to winning ways — which they can since the hosts scored just 175 — Mukesh should be given his due credit. He has simply been outstanding.