Yusuf Adam Abdulla (born 17 January 1983) is a retired South African

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. He played

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for the

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and had previously represented the

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

, South Africa A and the Rest of South Africa. A Left-arm fast-medium bowler, Abdulla was named in the Emerging Players squad to take part in the 4 Nations tournament in 2007 and played in the following years competition as well. He was currently one of South Africa's leading domestic-competition bowlers. He made his international debut against Australia in the 2nd

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Supersport Park Centurion Park is a cricket ground in Centurion in South Africa. It is also known as SuperSport Park since television company SuperSport bought shares in the stadium. The capacity of the ground is 22,000. The Titans cricket team have played mo ...

on 29 March 2009, he took 1/16 from 3 overs; his first International wicket was

Ricky Ponting Ricky Thomas Ponting (born 19 December 1974) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator, and former player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time and is the most successful captain in international cricket history, ...

. He was subsequently added to the

Kings XI Punjab The Punjab Kings, also known as PBKS, formerly known as Kings XI Punjab, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in New Chandigarh, Punjab, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is jointly owned by Mohit Burm ...

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squad following an injury to Jerome Taylor.

Early life

Yusuf Abdulla belongs to a Muslim family and was raised in

Lenasia Lenasia, also known as Lenz, is a Suburbs of Johannesburg, suburb south of Soweto in the Gauteng Province, Gauteng province, South Africa, originally created to house Indian South Africans, Indians. It is located in Region G of the City of Joha ...

, a suburb located in the South of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, he played for his high school in

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

before his family shifted to Dundee in KwaZulu Natal. He was picked by Yashin Ebrahim of the KZN academy to be trained directly under him. And after giving a solid performance in the 2006–07 season in the Pro-20 in which he got 9 wickets at an average of 12.0 he was selected for the High Performance Centre in Pretoria as one of the 20 amateurs to train at the National Academy. He is of Indian origin as his mother is from the city of

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Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Domestic career

Yusuf Abdulla made his domestic debut for KwaZulu-Natal against

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on 16 February 2006 at Durban just after his return from The National Academy in the 2007–08 Season. Abdulla impressed with his performance for the Dolphins in the Pro 20 with a tally of 10 wickets at an average of 13.

International career

Yusuf Abdulla got his international call on 29 March 2009 when he was included in the 20–20 side to play against Australia at

Centurion In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion (; , . ; , or ), was a commander, nominally of a century (), a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time; from the 1st century BC ...

. Other than that Yusuf Abdulla played just one more international game and took only 2 International wickets for South Africa. Abdulla was also the part of the South Africa's 2009 T20 World Cup Squad but did not get a chance.

IPL career

In the 2009 IPL Abdulla was signed up as a replacement player. Yusuf's performances in the first half of the 2009 season created quite a sensation and gave his career a temporary boost. He ended the tournament with 14 wickets at an average of 17.21. In the following season Kings XI Punjab gave him a contract of $50,000.

Retirement

Abdulla retired during the 2010/11 season citing injury. Abdulla had lost his domestic contract after injury and had no swing or pace

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdulla, Yusuf 1983 births Dolphins (South African cricket team) players KwaZulu-Natal cricketers Living people South African people of Indian descent Sportspeople of Indian descent South African people of Gujarati descent South African cricketers South African Muslims Gujarati sportspeople South Africa Twenty20 International cricketers 21st-century South African sportsmen Punjab Kings cricketers South African expatriate cricketers in India Cricketers from Johannesburg