In a T20 game, one over - a good one or a bad one, depending on your perspective - swings things completely, even decides the outcome. On Sunday night in Delhi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivered one such over. Delhi Capitals (DC) were going all right on a tricky pitch and, in the 17th over, Bhuvneshwar took out KL Rahul, who you would expect to take the innings deep, and Ashutosh Sharma, one of the batters DC look to for quick runs at the close. Not for the first time, as Anil Kumble put it, "Bhuvi had the perfect answer".
"He's always been very special as a bowler. Whichever team he has played for, he picks up wickets in the powerplay, he's learnt the tricks and the trade of what needs to be done in the back end, and he's very consistent," Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out show after Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) had beaten DC by six wickets to climb to the top of the IPL 2025 points table.
"Barely a game where the batters get under him and then put him under pressure. On a surface like this, he bowled the perfect second spell. The crucial wicket of KL Rahul. KL Rahul, the idea was probably to take it deep and then target the faster bowlers and target the last three or four overs, maximise those four overs. And Bhuvi had the perfect answer."
Bhuvneshwar has never been the sort to grab the headlines, attract a lot of attention. His calling card has been consistency, as Kumble said, and doing what he is capable of as well as possible, day after day, whichever team, whichever format.
Now 35 and seemingly out of the frame when it comes to international cricket, Bhuvneshwar continues to evolve as a white-ball bowler. This IPL, you might not have noticed him, but he has been a fantastic support act to Josh Hazlewood, the Purple Cap holder, and Krunal Pandya, who also seems to have reinvented himself with his new team. Bhuvneshwar has 12 wickets from nine games and an economy rate of 8.35. There was just the one game this season where he didn't get a wicket and just two games - against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the high-scoring Wankhede Stadium and against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at home in a game RCB won - that he has been expensive.
On Sunday, DC might have been looking at a total slightly higher than the 162 they ended with when Rahul was out there with Tristan Stubbs. Second ball of the 17th, Bhuvneshwar pitched the ball up, scrambled seam, Rahul went downtown but couldn't get enough on the ball and was caught in the deep. Fifth ball, Ashutosh thought the slower legcutter was a good ball to dab down behind point. It was so slow, though, that Ashutosh was done and dusted with whatever he was attempting before the ball arrived. And bowled him.
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Bhuvneshwar ended with 3 for 33 on the night.
"I think the two or three variations that he has… the yorker is absolutely spot on; the way Bhuvi bowls he hardly gives any width; and he uses that hard-length delivery which surprises the batters," Wasim Jaffer said on the same show about what makes one of the older bowlers in the competition remain so relevant.
Stubbs hit 34 of 18 towards the end to give DC a decent finish, but take that over from Bhuvneshwar out, and RCB might well have been chasing more than they did. Not only because of the 17th, but the 20th too, where another slower delivery got the better of Stubbs and only six runs were scored.
"Sometimes they [the batters] expect the yorkers or maybe the slower ball; he uses the knuckleball. So he's got two-three really good variations," Jaffer said. "And it's very tough to line Bhuvi up [thinking] that he is only going to bowl this delivery."