5 best bowling spells by Indian bowlers from IPL 2016
T20 is a batsman’s game they say and bowlers seem like meat and drink, at times, playing bit parts in a VFX-laden movie starring batsmen as superheroes. But, this year’s IPL has seen fewer monster scores, even though we did have a decent number of good totals. The bowlers have had a good IPL, thanks to cutting-edge technology helping skippers, coaches and the think-tanks to work out chinks in the batsmen’s armour.
Bowlers have been improving as well, finding newer and more innovative ways of tying the batsmen down. For Indian fans, it was a good IPL considering, the Purple Cap as well as the Orange Cap was won by Indians. Quite a few brilliant spells came from the Indian bowlers and the teams that made it to the top were largely there because of the excellent performances of their Indian contingents, an original mission for the IPL. Here, we take a look at the top 5 bowling performances by the Indian bowlers.
1) Amit Mishra, 3-0-11-4, Delhi Daredevils vs Kings XI Punjab, Delhi
Setting the tone very early in the tournament, Mishra came up with the best bowling spell by an Indian bowler in the IPL 2016, that too in his 100th IPL game. Delhi won the one-sided game by 8 wickets, with 39 balls to spare, chasing down a small total of 111 with ease.
That victory was entirely set up by two Indians bowlers – Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra. While Khan ended up with figures of 1-14 in 4 overs, Mishra rocked the middle order of the Kings XI team picking up the wickets of Manan Vohra, Shaun Marsh, David Miller and Glenn Maxwell.
Picking up the wicket of Marsh with his very first ball in the first over after the powerplay, Mishra dug the nails into the Kings XI coffin by picking up Miller and Maxwell in the same over in the space of three balls.
In his third over, he continued the rampage by picking up the wicket of the well-settled Vohra, wrecking Punjab, who could never recover from 59-5. Mishra lost an opportunity to pick up a rare five-wicket haul, considering he never bowled his final over.
Nevertheless, it was a sparkling spell of leg-spin bowling, Vohra and Miller undone by a googly, Maxwell falling to a tossed-up delivery and Marsh stumped. He was deservedly Man of the Match.