Watch: Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed first ball against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in IPL 2023 today (April 11), falling for his fourth golden duck in six innings.
Called up for a maiden Test match to the surprise of many, Yadav had made eight runs in his only innings against Australia before being dropped.
In the ODI series that followed, he not only fell first ball in each of the three innings but failed to put bat on ball: he was leg-before twice and bowled once.
Yet, expectations did not subside when he returned to the IPL, for Twenty20 was his format. This was, after all, what had made him a global superstar.
He began with a cautious 15 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, and made a solitary run against the Chennai Super Kings. Against Delhi, he had an excellent opportunity of playing himself back into form, after the hosts were bowled out for 172 by Piyush Chawla (3-22) and Jason Behrendorff (3-23).
Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma (65 in 45 balls) blazed away to a fiery start, adding 71 with Ishan Kishan (31 in 26) and 68 with Tilak Varma (41 in 29). Yadav walked out after Varma’s wicket. At that point, Mumbai needed 33 in 25 balls with eight wickets in hand.
Mukesh Kumar aimed the next ball at Yadav’s ribcage, but the ball went slightly down the leg. Yadav went ahead with the pull, only to find Kuldeep Yadav on the deep fine-leg boundary.
Earlier in the night, Yadav had dropped two catches and had been hit on the face. The golden duck merely compounded his woes.
Rohit followed soon afterwards. At the time of writing, Mumbai were 153-4 in 18 overs, with Tim David on three and Cam Green on seven.
