Siddharth Kaul leads the wicket-takers table in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015

Right-arm medium pacer, Siddharth Kaul of Punjab, is at the helm of the table for ‘leading wicket-takers’ in the league stage of the tournament.

Bagging 16 wickets from 6 games (6 innings) at an average of 16.25, an economy rate of 5.23 and a strike rate of 19.6, Kaul leads the pack. He has a solitary ‘4-wicket’ haul and ‘5-wicket’ haul to his credit.

Having bowled 49.4 overs, 1 of which was a maiden, he has given away 260 runs. His best bowling performance has been 5/32. Kaul is the mainstay of the bowling attack for Punjab.

His best bowling performance (5/32) came in the game against Hyderabad played on 11th December, 2015, at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad.

Huderabad, led by Hanuma Vihari, won the toss and opted to field. Punjab, backed by a well made 64 runs (95m, 66b, 6 fours) by Mayank Sidhana, who registered his 4th List A half-century in his 26th match (18th innings), his 5th wicket partnership of 50 runs in 10.5 overs with Gurkeerat Singh (35) and another partnership of 62 runs in 9 overs for the 6th wicket with the wicketkeeper Gitash Khera (30), could manage to put on 238 runs in 49.4 overs.

Right-arm medium pacer, Majeti Ravi Kiran of Hyderabad was the most successful bowler claiming 4 wickets from 9.4 overs, giving away 33 runs.

A splendid bowling performance by Siddharth Kaul, who opened the bowling attack for Punjab, claimed the wickets of Tirumalasetti Suman (17), Bavanaka Sandeep (27), Himalay Purushottam Agarwal (7), Chama Milind (7) and Vishal Sharma (1).

Giving away 32 runs in his spell of 8.4 overs, he was ably assisted by Barinder Balbirsingh Sran (8-1-36-3), Kaul helped Punjab in restricting the opposition to 182 runs in 42.4 overs and win the game by 56 runs.

Incidentally Sran got the BCCI selectors’ nod to be a part of team India for their ODI series against Australia to be played Down Under.

Making his List A debut in the game against Delhi on 17th February, 2009, played at HPCA Stadium. Dharmashala, Kaul claimed the prize wickets of both the openers, Aakash Chopra (10) and Shikhar Dhawan (4) by the 12th over and gave a good start to his team. He was the most successful bowler for Punjab, returning with the figures of 10-1-54-2. However, this effort came on a losing cause.

Since then Kaul has featured in 36 games (36 innings) and has claimed 61 wickets with 6/39 being his best bowing performance.

Placed behind Tamil Nadu on the Group A Points Table with 20 points from 6 games (5 wins and 1 loss) with a NRR of 0.349, Punjab has qualified for the knock out round. They take on Himachal Pradesh in the first quarter-final encounter to be played on at KSCA Cricket (2) Ground. Alur, on 23rd December 2015.

This gives the Punjab youngster another opportunity to showcase his bowling performance and consolidate his position at the top of the wicket-takers’ table.