The heart-wrenching defeat of 19th November 2023 has profited the Indian cricket team in more ways than one. Ever since that gut-churning embarrassment at the ICC ODI World Cup in 2023 in our own backyard, Rohit Sharma has taken it quite personally to justify the ‘hit’ hidden in his name. Playing at a strike rate of more than 100 in every single ODI match ever since the infamous ordeal of 19/11. So unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know that India won the t20 world cup on the 29th of June last year and have now gone on to achieve something even more spectacular, but here’s a small tale about how Kuldeep broke the Kiwi’s back.
Unlike 19/11, this time around it was New Zealand that decided to bat first after winning the toss and boy did they do that, but only for the initial 10 overs. After the end of the first power-play, NZ stood at a phenomenal 69 for 1 down. With Rachin Ravindra on song and India’s hopes dwindling. But then Rohit does something no one expected of him, he brings in Kuldeep Yadav for the 11th over, something neither Rachin Ravindra nor Will Young were expecting in their wildest fantasies. You see, Kuldeep is primarily a middle-over bowler coming in generally after the 20th over mark with the ball soft, and so his sudden appearance turned some heads in the stands and even in the commentary box.
Kuldeep marked his run-up, jumps, loads his bowling action, hop-scotch and BANG! Kuldeep bowls the wrong-un (googly) and bashed it hard and flush into Rachin’s Middle stump, completely bamboozling him. Ravindra stood there, in stunned silence, trying to make sense of the events that had transpired, but to no avail. Rachin walks out with his head down and in came Kane Williamson, arguably the best player of spin New-Zealand have ever had in their history.
So after getting Rachin out, Kuldeep did something even more amazing, if you can believe that. This time he (Kuldeep) bowls a back-off-the-hand slower one and he loops it in the air, pitching it on the leg stump. One would expect a batsman of Kane Williamson’s caliber to loft it over long on or mid-wicket, but he doesn’t. Kane fails to realize the trajectory of the ball and ends up lobbing it up to Kuldeep almost as if it were a session of catching practice and not an ICC final and BANG! India get Kane out.
In my personal opinion, New-Zealand lost the Champions Trophy 2025 final the moment Kane Williamson got out, because the very fact that their two best spin-players were out in the span of 10 deliveries, destroyed the Kiwi’s will to fight, and all thanks to Kuldeep Yadav, the man who was constantly questioned throughout the CT 2025 campaign but ended up being the margin of victory for India.
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