Siddarth Kaul rattled the Delhi batsmen to return with figures of 6/32. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)On a smoky winter morning at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Punjab pacer Siddarth Kaul rattled the Delhi batsmen to return with figures of 6/32 and skittle out Delhi for a paltry 107 on day 1 of round 4 in the Ranji Trophy. Playing as the lone seamer for Punjab, Kaul had an impressive outing as he hit the deck hard from ball one and reaped rewards for being consistently on target throughout his spell of 12.5 overs. However, what worked in his favour was his ability to read the pitch and deliver accordingly. Out of his six wickets, three were bowled while one was lbw. This tells you that the Punjab pacer bowled a wicket-to-wicket line.
“Everyone including me thought the wicket will turn. It was definitely slow and low. But the moisture on offer was something that I utilized well as a single fast bowler in the team. The most important aspect was the area I chose to bowl and that worked in my favour. It is important that you visualize where you need to pitch the ball and get a purchase out of it.”
“Hard length is best on Kotla wicket coz sometimes it might swing or skid or even jump awkwardly. That is why you saw me using the bouncer,” he explained. Particularly impressive was the dismissal of Varun Sood- where Kaul kept pegging away outside the off and then sent down a thunderous bouncer. The batsmen simply failed to get out of the way and ended up fending at it, only to be caught by Jiwanjot Singh in the slips.
Siddarth Kaul bowled with a lot of steam to skittle out Delhi for 107. (Source: Express Photo by Jasbir Malhi)Explaining his thought process on succeeding on a flat low track, “Judging the bounce of the wicket and how to use it to your benefit. If it is low then swithing to a wicket-wicket line. This will, in turn, check the run flow and result in the batsmen making a mistake.
Siddarth Kaul was recently included in the India squad for the final T20I to be held at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on November 11. However, the 28-year-old is unperturbed with the talk surrounding him being a white-ball specialist. “I am not too concerned about the tags of being a specialist in white-ball cricket or red ball. For me, any format deserves 100 percent from a player. My statistics in the longer format is equally good and it’s not that I think only of white ball cricket. That is the job of the selectors. So for me, it is all about giving your cent percent on the field,” he concluded.
Brief Scores- Delhi: 107 in 42.5 overs (K Bidhuri 27; Siddarth Kaul 6/32)
Punjab: 136/3 in 45 overs (Mandeep Singh 54 batting; Vikas Mishra 2/27).
