Cricket fans in the UAE received another reason to follow the ongoing Indian Premier League on Sunday as teen leg-spinner Yash Punja made a memorable debut for Rajasthan Royals.
Punja, 19, had already become the first player born in the UAE to be recruited for cricket’s biggest T20 league.
On Sunday at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Punja enjoyed a dream start in the IPL as he picked up a wicket against Kolkata Knight Riders after coming on as an impact substitute during the chase.
Defending a modest target of 156, Rajasthan bowlers dominated the early part of Kolkata's chase with fast bowlers and spinners getting help from the surface.
The Knight Riders were staring down the barrel at one stage at 85-6.
But an unbeaten partnership between Rinku Singh (53) and Anukul Roy (29) took the Knight Riders to their first win of the season.
Before Rinku and Anukul stitched together their partnership, Punja (1-25) had done his job brilliantly.
The leg-spinner used his height and fast variations to keep the Knight Riders on a tight leash, taking the wicket of the well set Ramandeep Singh, who edged a drive on to his stumps.
He finished his spell with the match almost in the bag. But in T20 cricket, it is never really over.
Rinku capitalised on an early dropped catch to turn up the heat in the death overs. Kolkata thus secured their first win after seven games to keep their faint qualification hopes alive.
For Punja, it was a day he will never forget. The right-arm spinner comes from a well known cricket family in the UAE.
His brother Yodhin, who is seven years his senior, was a brilliant junior cricketer and holds the record as the youngest UAE player in men’s international cricket.
It was Yodhin who urged Yash to switch to leg spin as the younger Punja started training at the Zayed Cricket Academy in Abu Dhabi.
Punja then relocated to India, where he has been playing competitive cricket at the domestic level in the state of Karnataka for more than two seasons.
Punja is the second cricketer from the UAE to be associated with the IPL. India-born Chirag Suri was recruited to Gujarat Lions in 2017, but he did not feature in their starting XI.
