Sandeep Lamichhane took his maiden wicket in the Indian Premier League on debut for Delhi Daredevils against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium late Saturday night.

Suffering a miserable run in the 2018 edition of IPL, Delhi Daredevils included teenagers Lamichhane, Junior Dala of South Africa and Abhishek Sharma in a must-win game.Australian cricket legend and Daredevils coach Ricky Ponting handed the trio the débutante’s caps. After scoring 181 for 4 in their 20 overs, Delhi Daredevils’ skipper Shreyas Iyer played his trump card upfront, opening the bowling with the Nepali leg-spinner.Lamichhane did not disappoint his captain. He bowled a frugal first over, conceding just two runs. He picked his first wicket in IPL on the fourth ball of his second over. He pitched the ball around the middle stump, left-handed Parthiv Patel went down to sweep, but the ball spun into his pad plumb in front of the wickets. He finished his four overs at with a decent average of 6.25, conceding 25 runs for his one wicket.

The 17-year-old leg spinner made the headlines in Nepali media after Daredevils signed him for INR 2 million at the auction held in Bangalore on January 29. It made Lamichhane the first Nepali to get associated with the most coveted professional Twenty20 league across the world for international cricketers. Lamichhane’s debut comes rather late since the under-performing Daredevils are out of the playoffs. With just six points, they are at the bottom of the eight-team table. Both Bangalore and Daredevils are out of playoff contention.Despite making debut for a team that now has nothing to take from the tournament, Lamichhane’s prolonged debut was highly celebrated by Nepalis across the world.Nepalis hailed his debut on social networking sites.

Lamichhane had rose to fame after he became the fifth cricketer in the U-19 World Cup history to take a hat- trick, a feat he achieved in the 2016 edition in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Lamichhane ended up as tournament’s second leading wicket taker in Bangladesh and but he created global headlines after he was likened to Australian leg-spin wizard Shane Warne.

Drafted into the senior fold, Lamichhane consistently gave impressive performance in every outing. The biggest turn in his career came after Australian World Cup winning captain Michael Clarke invited Lamichhane to Australia and also arranged him an opportunity to play Grade Cricket with Sydney Suburbs.Clarke has backed Lamichhane ever since and he has been frequently talked of playing the Nepali teen in every game that Daredevils play in the current IPL season. Lamichhane’s journey to IPL is also attributed to Clarke- Ponting connection. “My little buddy IamSandeep25 gets his first opportunity in the IPL. What an amazing story,” Clarke tweeted after Lamichhane was confirmed of his debut.

Source: The Kathmandu Post