After winning Player of the Match in Delhi’s final league match of the 2024 Indian Premier League, a 19-run victory against Lucknow at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday, May 14, 35-year-old Ishant Sharma showed off his new variety.
During their 209-run chase, Ishant broke the back of LSG’s top order by taking significant wickets from KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock. He then got Deepak Hooda to catch LBW, bringing LSG to 41 for 4.
Ishant Sharma played in the most T20 league games of his career since 2019, concluding with 10 wickets from 9 matches in the IPL 2024 league stage.
Notably, Ishant took a slower delivery that shaped away from star batsman Virat Kohli to get the important wicket in Delhi’s previous match against RCB in Bengaluru. Ishant delivered a similar ball on Tuesday that caught K.L. Rahul off guard.
Axar Patel and skipper Rishabh Pant were making fun of Ishant Sharma when he was questioned if it was his knuckleball, so he decided to come up with a new variety. Ishant disclosed that in DC’s final two IPL league games of the season, he took out KL Rahul and Virat Kohli with the new delivery.
“I have been attempting to bowl the knuckleball in the last few games, but it hasn’t been particularly successful. I was being made fun of by Rishabh and Axar, who said that I shouldn’t be bowling the knuckleball. I thus had to introduce something fresh. I spent the last two games practicing with this new slower ball. I hope it was successful for me. I got rid of Virat in the previous game as well as KL in this one.”
Ishant Sharma, who has participated in the IPL from its inception, spoke on the game’s longevity and thanked physio Patrick Farhart for assisting him in staying healthy so he could play nine matches in the IPL 2024 season.
With his final numbers of 3 for 34 in 4 overs, Ishant Sharma enabled Delhi to hold LSG to 189 for 9 in 20 overs, winning by 19 runs. After their seventh victory of the year, Delhi moved up to fifth place in the IPL 2024 points standings, but it’s unlikely to be enough to get them into the playoffs.