Prince Yadav has been busy making a name for himself this IPL, but Thursday night in Lucknow felt different. In a rain-trimmed 19-over match, Lucknow Super Giants posted 209 for 3 and then squeezed Royal Challengers Bengaluru by nine runs. The moment everybody keeps rewinding is the second ball of RCB’s chase: good length, fifth-stump line, late nip back, off stump cartwheeling, Virat Kohli walking off bewildered.
“I don’t think any batsman in the world can play that,” Ambati Rayudu said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show. Katey Martin went a step further: “You [have to] see that as the ball of the tournament … back into the stumps, top of off … your perfect delivery and maybe something that Prince Yadav dreams of.”
With Kohli gone for a two-ball duck, RCB’s equation suddenly felt steeper. They still scrapped to 200, but the early breakthrough remained the difference. Prince finished with 3 for 33, nudging his season tally to 16 wickets – one shy of the Purple Cap leaders. Asked to describe the dismissal, he kept things simple. “I felt good after the [Kohli] wicket. But I am most happy that we won the match. If I had taken the wicket and we had lost, it wouldn’t have been so [good].”
RCB skipper Rajat Patidar knows Prince from domestic cricket and wasn’t surprised. “I have seen him from the start. He has a lot of variations. He has pace. He has swing. He is a proper fast bowler. One of his qualities is that he trusts his skills … I have never seen him give a lot of runs. I think it was a game-changing spell.”
Rayudu, more animated than most, sees a bigger stage ahead. “That guy is a special talent, Prince. The way he runs in – his run-up itself tells you that he is in there for a fight. He bowls a heavy ball and most of his deliveries are hitting the stumps. That’s his speciality.” He also added, “I think he’ll be a treat to stand [to] in the slips … He is a potential 50-over bowler as well. I think he’s an all-format bowler, the way he’s looking right now.”
The numbers explain the excitement without needing extra hype. Prince is conceding under eight an over, despite operating almost exclusively in the powerplay and at the death – the tough overs. Nearly half his deliveries this season have either beaten the bat or struck it less than cleanly, a useful indicator of how often he is in the contest.
For casual followers, the term “nip-backer” simply means a ball that starts on one line and cuts back sharply into the right-hander. Executed at 140-plus kph, on a length that forces defence rather than a flashy drive, it is awkward to negotiate. Some bowlers manage one such ball in an over. Rayudu reckons Prince sends down “about four to five. That’s his strength.”
LSG management will quietly appreciate a second subplot: the pacer’s workload. He bowled only three overs on the night because of the shortened game, an inadvertent bonus with the business end of the tournament approaching. The franchise has relied on him for early strikes, and the Kohli dismissal underlined why. Lose a world-class anchor that early and the chasing side’s entire roadmap changes.
There was still jeopardy late on – RCB needed 15 off the last over – yet the sense persisted that Lucknow were in front from ball two. Prince’s spell was central, but so were KL Rahul’s 66 not out and Nicholas Pooran’s 48 off 20. The story will, however, travel with the image of Kohli’s off stump leaning back, LED bails flashing, and Prince’s modest celebration: arms out, half-smile, then a quiet jog back to his mark.
Rayudu summed up the broader sentiment: “He seems to be an all-format bowler.” For a tournament that can sometimes blur into one big six-fest, a seamer moving the ball at pace remains compelling theatre. And when the victim is Kohli – typically the master of lining up a chase – the theatre feels that bit grander.
International selection chat is never far away. Rayudu said, “I think he is going to make his [international] debut soon.” National selectors are unlikely to base decisions on one ball, but they do track consistency under pressure. Sixteen wickets, economy sound, wickets of Rohit Sharma, Jos Buttler and now Kohli on the CV – those numbers speak clearly enough.
For now, Prince is living the simpler dream: bowling quick, hitting the stumps, helping Lucknow stay in the play-off frame. Everything else – acclaim, headlines, maybe even a cap in another shade of blue – can wait its turn.
