IPL 2022: Aakash Chopra lauds Umesh Yadav's spell for KKR against PBKS

Aakash Chopra has lauded Umesh Yadav for making it a habit of striking early blows with the ball in IPL 2022 thus far.

Yadav registered figures of 4/23 in last night's Indian Premier League encounter between the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Punjab Kings (PBKS). He was duly chosen as the Player of the Match for his game-defining performance.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra pointed out that Umesh Yadav has delivered the goods with the new ball in every KKR match to date. He elaborated:

"Umesh Yadav has been absolutely stellar in the entire season till now. He is taking wickets for timepass in the first over - Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat was not the first over but he dismissed Anuj Rawat in the first over and here he hit the ball on Mayank Agarwal's pad."

The cricketer-turned-commentator added that Yadav made the best use of the opportunity to get to bowl first. Chopra explained:

"Winning the toss was important because Shreyas Iyer said there itself that it will be a swimming pool later. And they bowled amazingly well, Umesh Yadav at different, different stages. You hit the ball on Mayank Agarwal's pad in the first over - thank you very much. You came back later and took wickets with the old ball as well."

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After dismissing Mayank Agarwal in the first over, Yadav came back to get rid of the dangerous Liam Livingstone. He later got the better of Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar to finish with his best IPL figures.

"He is 24-carat gold" - Aakash Chopra highlights Umesh Yadav was a last-minute pick at the IPL 2022 Auction

Umesh Yadav was KKR's penultimate pick at the IPL 2022 Auction [P/C: iplt20.com]

While lauding Yadav, Aakash Chopra highlighted that the veteran pacer almost went unsold at the IPL 2022 Auction. He observed:

"The truth is that people did not even lift the paddle for him at the auction thrice. He was going unsold and coming here, he is 24-carat gold, old is gold. Umesh was brilliant and so was Tim Southee, his catch was also amazing."

The 44-year-old concluded by pointing out that the other KKR bowlers also played their roles in restricting PBKS to a below-par score. Chopra said:

"Sunil Narine was both accurate and a wicket-taker. Varun Chakravarthy also this time around because the ball was not wet. Punjab didn't even play the entire 20 overs. That many runs were not scored for Punjab to put up a fight."

Shivam Mavi was the only KKR bowler taken to the cleaners in yesterday's encounter. However, he did dismiss Bhanuka Rajapaksa after being carted all over the park by the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batter.