"They Couldn't Read Me...": How Kuldeep Yadav Bamboozled Pakistan Batters In World Cup Clash

India spinner Kuldeep Yadav believes that he was able to create confusion in the minds of Pakistani batters as they went for high risk sweep shots despite failing to read his hand in the marquee World Cup clash here. Kuldeep took the important wickets of Saud Shakeel and Iftikhar Ahmed, both of whom went for the non existent sweep shot off the left arm wrist spinner, hastening the Pakistan collapse. Asked if he planned to bowl Iftikhar around his legs, Kuldeep gave an interesting reply.

"No, I didn't plan that I would try to bowl Iftikhar around the legs but since I bowl the wrong 'un (googly), I tried that but it was a wide ball and also a bit on the shorter side which made it difficult for him to sweep," Kuldeep said during his interaction in mixed zone after the seven-wicket win.

Iftikhar, also fondly referred to as "chacha" (Uncle) by Pakistani fans, played the ball on to the stumps. "It was lucky wicket for me and this kind of wicket puts pressure on batters. They weren't able to read me from the hands and were in two minds whether to sweep or play normally. I would have loved to get him out in a better manner though," Kuldeep said with a smile.

In fact, Kuldeep wasn't supposed to bowl that over and only got to do that after speaking to skipper Rohit Sharma.

"I thought they would try to sweep as they are known to play that shot. But they didn't take chance but that extra over that I bowled after discussing with skipper, both wickets came in that over.

"Obviously Mohammed Siraj got Babar and that breakthrough helped. Planning to bowl that extra over did get us those two wickets and they couldn't recover."

There wasn't much help for pacers or spinners from Motera track and Kuldeep reckoned 270 would have been a good