Delhi Capitals spinner Kuldeep Yadav hailed his friend and India teammate Yuzvendra Chahal after the Rajasthan Royals (RR) leg-spinner set the Brabourne Stadium on fire with a brilliant hat-trick to help his team seal a thrilling win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday.

Kuldeep took to his official Twitter handle to appreciate Chahal’s superlative effort with the ball on Monday night .”Chahalllll @yuzi_chahal,” Kuldeep tweeted along with fire and heart emojis.

Chahalllll @yuzi_chahal

— Kuldeep yadav (@imkuldeep18) April 18, 2022

Both Kuldeep and Chahal, famously known as KulCha, have been delivering match-winning performances for their new teams in IPL 2022. Notably, both spinners were not retained by their previous IPL franchises.

Chahal’s hat-trick and Obed McCoy’s two wickets in the last over lifted Rajasthan Royals to their fourth win of IPL 2022. Notably, Jos Buttler smashed his second century of this IPL — 103 off 61 balls — to help Rajasthan post 217/5, the highest total of the season, but Kolkata looked like chasing it down at 178/4 entering the 17th over.

However, Chahal had other plans for KKR batters as he picked his maiden IPL hat-trick to turn the momentum in Rajasthan’s favour.

Chahal got Venkatesh Iyer stumped, then three balls later he trapped KKR captain Shreyas Iyer for 85 off 51 balls, and Shivam Mavi and Pat Cummins were out to catches for ducks. The 21st hat trick in IPL history, and the fifth by a Rajasthan bowler, gave Chahal 5/40.

However, Kolkata still had a shot. Umesh Yadav and Sheldon Jackson took 20 off the 18th over, and 7 off the 19th. They needed a gettable nine off the last five deliveries by left-arm pacer McCoy on debut when Jackson mistimed a pull to short fine leg, and two balls later Yadav was bowled for 21 from nine. Kolkata was all out for 210 with two balls to spare.

Rajasthan moved to second in the standings on run rate, while Kolkata’s third straight loss put it at sixth.