IPL 2026: LSG pacer Prince Yadav becomes only 11th bowler to dismiss Virat Kohli for an IPL duck

LUCKNOW: On a damp and drizzly evening in Lucknow, under lights, a young seamer produced a moment that instantly entered IPL folklore. Prince Yadav produced a delivery that not only rattled Virat Kohli’s stumps, but it also shaped the fortunes of the contest.

Second over of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s chase of 210. A 140-kmph delivery. Seam upright, wrist firm. The ball jagged back sharply, breached Kohli’s defence and crashed into off stump. Silence, then shock. Kohli was gone for a duck, his first in the IPL since April 2023.

In that instant, Prince joined an exclusive list , just the 11th bowler in IPL history to dismiss Kohli for a duck, and only the second after Dhawal Kulkarni in 2016 to bowl him for zero.

If that was the headline act, the spell around it ensured it wasn’t a one-ball story. Prince finished with three wickets, controlling phases of the innings with pace, variations and composure. The effort propelled him to third in the Purple Cap race. He now has 16 wickets from 10 games and is just one shy of leaders Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Anshul Kamboj.

More importantly, it snapped Lucknow Super Giants’ six-match losing streak and kept their flickering playoff hopes alive.

Despite the enormity of the moment, Prince was quick to shift focus from personal triumph to team effort. “I’m really happy to have taken the wicket, but the thing I’m most happy about is that we won the match. If I had taken the wicket and we had lost, I wouldn’t be, so the best thing is that the team won,” he said.

The win, he insisted, didn’t alter the mood as much as it validated the belief within. “The atmosphere in the dressing room was good before, and is good now as well. Winning and losing happens in cricket, but our team is always putting in the effort. With regard to the playoffs, we’re just thinking match-by-match, and we’ll try our best.”

Interestingly, praise also came from the opposition camp. RCB captain Rajat Patidar, who has seen Prince closely in domestic cricket, underlined the threat he poses.

“We played a lot of domestic matches with Prince in Delhi. I have seen him for a long time. He has a lot of variations. He has pace. He has swing. He is a proper fast bowler. He bowled really well today, especially the slow balls that he tried. I think that was a game-changing spell,” Patidar said.

“One of his qualities is that he trusts his skills. That is commendable. He has given his team an important early breakthrough. He is an expert in that. I have never seen him give a lot of runs.”