Best Bowling Performances of Navdeep Saini in IPL
Navdeep Saini was an unknown commodity to many during the 2018 IPL auction. Hence, people found it surprising that Royal Challengers Bangalore spent INR 3 crores on him. But what was more surprising was the fact that despite his big price tag, Saini failed to feature in a single game during the season.
That was not because of Bangalore’s bowling unit’s brilliance, for the likes of Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj proved to be expensive. In last season, skipper Virat Kohli showed faith in the pacer, and he was not let down. Saini was one of the standouts in an otherwise bland bowling lineup of the Challengers.
Let us have a look at the top 3 bowling performances of Navdeep Saini in IPL:
3. 2/34 vs Kolkata Knight Riders
The first entry on the list of the top 3 bowling performances of Navdeep Saini in IPL is from the match where Saini first burst into fame and limelight. It was a match between RCB and Kolkata Knight Riders at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Batting first, Bangalore scored a mighty 205.
KKR had a brilliant first over in the chase, as Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine took Tim Southee for a ride around Karnataka. But Saini broke the partnership in the second over by dismissing the Caribbean all-rounder. His second wicket of the match was in the 17th over. He dismissed the opposition skipper, Dinesh Karthik. Unfortunately, it started the Andre Russell carnage and RCB lost the game.
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2. 2/33 vs Kings XI Punjab
This match against Kings XI Punjab is pretty similar to the last mention. Again batting first at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore scored a huge total of 202. Punjab had a brilliant start to the chase, but opener Chris Gayle was dismissed in the fourth over.
That, however, didn’t stop the mayhem. KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal continued the carnage, and after they were dismissed, David Miller and Nicholas Pooran were handed the baton. Saini sprung to life at a very late yet extremely crucial stage. In the penultimate over the game where match was balanced on a knife’s edge, he sealed the victory by dismissing both Miller and Pooran.
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1. 2/24 vs Delhi Capitals
This mention on the list of top 3 bowling performances of Navdeep Saini in IPL is from just a couple of days after his spell against KKR. Again at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore batted first against Delhi Capitals. This time, though, they could only manage to score 149 runs.
Delhi lost Shikhar Dhawan early, but Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer always kept them in the driver’s seat. Saini once again spiced things up very late, and dismissed Iyer and Chris Morris in the 18th over. As luck would have it, it was already too little too late by then.
