Coulter-Nile back after 'hardest year of my life'

Nathan Coulter-Nile is due his share of luck, and while misfortune cost him three wickets in his return to cricket last night, the fast bowler is simply delighted to just be back playing the game.

After the "hardest year of my life" due to a serious injury, Coulter-Nile returned for the Kolkata Knight Riders in Monday night's IPL clash with the Delhi Daredevils, taking 3-22 from four overs.

That he was robbed of no less than three wickets in his final over through shoddy catching and a stubborn bail would be galling, but hardly likely to dampen his mood.

Especially after his contribution with the ball helped restrict Dehli's innings before his Kolkata teammates secured a win that took them to the top of the IPL table.

"Getting back was tough, it was long time out of the game," Coulter-Nile said after the match.

"It probably was one of the hardest years of my life.

"But to be back playing cricket and doing well, and contributing to a win, it's all worth it in the end."

For Coulter-Nile, the IPL hasn't always been the happiest of hunting grounds. It's three years since his injury woes started in the tournament; an innocuous slide in the field while representing Delhi saw him tear his left hamstring.

It required surgery, and ruled him out of a mid-2014 ODI tour to Zimbabwe, costing him the spot in the national side he had won earlier that year in five matches against England.

An outstanding Matador Cup to open the 2014-15 summer saw him return to the ODI team with an eye on a World Cup spot, until he injured the hamstring again in a match against South Africa at the MCG.

He came back again, and played three more matches in Australia's ODI team in the UK in 2015, before the hamstring problem struck again – the right one this time – and saw him sent home from England.

The blows kept coming. He hurt his left shoulder landing awkwardly in a Matador Cup warm-up match a month later, but recovered to earn a call-up to Australia's Test squad to take on the West Indies. But in line for a Baggy Green on Boxing Day, he dislocated his right shoulder after a fall fielding in the KFC Big Bash League.

Fit again, he featured in the 2016 World T20 and played three more ODIs in a Caribbean tri-series. He again earned Test squad selection, this time for the mid-year series in Sri Lanka but having been confined to the training track during the Tests, he was sent home during the ODI component of the tour and diagnosed with a bone stress fracture.

That was the last time Coulter-Nile had been seen until his IPL appearance last night.

Determined to just "focus on my role" Coulter-Nile opened the bowling and the first ball of his second over yielded a wicket – a cross-seam short ball catching the glove of Sam Billings.

A series of smart deliveries left Karun Nair under pressure and, after three dot balls in the 15th over, a wild slog saw him bowled.

And while Delhi's Risbah Pant had been racking up a whirlwind 38 from 16 balls, Coulter-Nile pushed him wide and took the pace off, inducing a slice to have him caught at point.

Image Id: 63412796FDCC4BA4BDD03BD995972613 Image Caption: Coulter-Nile roars his delight at a wicket // BCCI

And his final over could well have yielded three more wickets. Chris Morris was dropped at long-on with the fielder Umesh Yadav running in from the fence and then dropped again from the most simple of chances offered to KKR captain Gautam Gambhir.

As if that wasn't enough, Coulter-Nile's final delivery of the night was speared in towards the leg stump, and clipped the woodwork. Incredibly, the bail stayed put.

And after almost a year out of the game, Coulter-Nile will now be hoping to do the same.