CHENNAI: But for Jerome Taylor’s freak vehicle accident, which ruled him out of the Indian Premier League, Yusuf Abdulla would have been shoved to obscurity.
Had either Brett Lee or Santhakumaran Sreesanth been at least half-fit, he would have been cooling his legs off in the Kings XI Punjab dugout.
It looks pre-ordained that Abdulla was to evolve as Punjab’s strike bowler through the course of the tournament.
For, his first two outings hardly indicated the impact he was readying himself for. Being thwacked by Virender Sehwag, conceding 19 runs in his only over against Delhi Daredevils, before being blown by Chris Gayle, this time 20 in two overs, Abdulla’s international cricket sojourn headed down the gurgler.
But so impoverished was Punjab’s bowling resources that the team think tank had no other go but to persist with this 26-year-old. So untypical of a South African, he was flabby and rotund. Refinement is as far-fetched an element as charm when he trots to the delivery stride, followed by an uneasy release of the ball, clocking genial speed in the 125- 130 kmph range. But niceties of cricket matters little in Twenty 20, as Abdulla proved in due course.
Even against Bangalore Royal Challengers in Durban, Abdulla seemed pedestrian until he castled a marauding Jesse Ryder with a slow off-cutter. Here unfurled Abdulla’s fairy-tale run. The same over, he dismissed the patchy but dangerous Kevin Pietersen with his stock out-swinger angled across the right-hander. In his second spell, he accounted for the rampaging Jacques Kallis and Ross Taylor, reducing Bangalore to 168, which at one point headed to breach 200.
A few days later, he came back to decimate Rajasthan, snapping the crucial scalps of Rob Quiney, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Ravindra Jadeja. But his final over against Mumbai Indians best sums up his rollercoaster career. Needing 12 off the last over, with JP Duminy well set, Mumbai fancied realistic chances.
And Abdulla was no Joel Garner or Waqar Younis when it came to toe-crushers.
He didn’t require them either.
On such a dew-infested night, he relied on his slower balls, hitting just a few inches back of good length, than the yorkers that had a more margin for error.
Only two runs in two balls and pressure mounted on Duminy, whose swipe to deep mid-wicket was pouched by Taruwar Kohli, thereby halting Mumbai’s challenge. This over testified his common sense as well as fortitude.
He enhanced his reputation with a four-for against Bangalore Royal Challengers though Punjab lost the match.
The highest wicket taker so far in the IPL, he would figure prominently in South Africa’s scheme of things in the T20 World Cup in England.