Rana rose to the occasion in India’s nervy four-wicket win over New Zealand in Vadodara ODI.
Harshit Rana’s selection in all three formats of the game sparked uproar last year, but the fast-bowling all-rounder is slowly but surely justifying his place in the Indian team with impressive performances.
The 24-year-old rose to the occasion in India’s nervy four-wicket win over New Zealand in the first ODI at Vadodara on Sunday (January 11).
Harshit returned with bowling figures of 2/65 in 10 overs and produced a crucial knock of 23-ball 29 in the tense run chase of 301.
After India’s victory, Harshit came to address the post-match press conference, where a journalist posed a question about the team's inability to pick up wickets with the new ball in ODIs, especially in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah.
“We can see that, in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah. We can see a problem in Indian bowling. With the new ball, the wickets are not coming easily. So, what's the reason for that?” the reporter asked.
However, Harshit was left irked by the question as he replied: "I don't know what cricket you are watching, even today if we did not get the (early) wickets, Siraj bhai bowled really well. We did not give away a lot of runs either with the new ball."
"But these things happen, if you do not get wickets early on then you will get them later, which is what we did. There are different phases in ODI cricket. I felt that the pitch was slow, there wasn't much bounce either,” he added.
Earlier, Rana, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishan returned with two wickets each to help India restrict the Kiwis to 300/8 in 50 overs.
Chasing the target, the Men in Blue lost Rohit Sharma for 26 runs but Virat Kohli added 118 runs for the second wicket with skipper Shubman Gill to put India in the driver’s seat.
While Gill fell after scoring 56 off 71 balls, Kohli nearly went on to hit his 54th ODI century en route to his 77-run partnership with Shreyas Iyer (49 off 47). Kohli was eventually dismissed on 93 by Kyle Jamieson in the 40th over. His 91-ball knock was studded with 8 fours and 1 six.
After Kohli and Iyer’s dismissals in quick succession, KL Rahul (29* off 21) and Harshit Rana chipped in with handy contributions to take the team home with an over to spare.
With this victory, India took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The second ODI will be played in Rajkot on Wednesday (January 14).