Royal Challengers Bangalore keeper Parthiv Patel inflicted a crucial run-out on the final delivery of his team's match against Chennai Super Kings on Sunday (April 21) when the opposition skipper and in-form batsman MS Dhoni couldn't connect that ball with his team needing two runs to win.
Dhoni smashed away 24 off the 26 runs that his team required for a victory from the first five deliveries of the over against Umesh Yadav, but the great right-hander failed to hit when it mattered the most, and was later denied a single that he tried to steal via a bye as Parthiv executed a direct hit to dismiss Shardul Thakur.
"We honestly wanted him (Dhoni) to hit through the off-side on the shorter side of the ground. If he had hit it on the leg-side, there were two runs because I don't think the way he runs, there was any chance of stopping those two," he said at the post-match press conference.
"So we wanted (Umesh) to bowl slower and outside the off-stump and surprisingly he missed it. I wasn't expecting him to miss it but surprisingly he missed it. Playing in Bangalore or Mumbai, you know that 70 runs in the last five overs are gettable. You need at least have 80-90 runs to get in last five overs to defend. So, we wanted to squeeze him."
"We wanted to bowl as many dot balls to him as possible and put pressure on other batsmen because everybody knows how MS is. He wanted the game to go down to last three-four overs and he almost won the game."
Parthiv, who was awarded "Player-of-the-Match" for his very fine half-century (37-ball 53), acknowledged the help he received from coach Gary Kirsten leading up to this encounter and gave credit to the former South African batsman for his vital performance on the night.
"Before the game started, I was talking to Gary and he said 'you don't have to worry of anything, you need to choose your bowlers' and that is exactly what I did," he said. "Honestly, it is great to be playing in the opening slot with Virat and AB coming in at number three. Actually, I don't have to do much. I try to make sure that I hit a couple of boundaries and try and rotate the strike."
"You know, I have been working hard on my game. I have been there in Australia for a couple of months...I have been working hard and I am quite happy with the way I am batting," Patel concluded.
(Inputs from PTI)
