Harshal Patel played a key role with the ball as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) registered a narrow two-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL 2021 opener at Chepauk on Friday (April 9).
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Electing to bowl first, RCB restricted the defending champions to 159 in their stipulated 20 overs on the back of Harshal’s five-wicket haul (5-27).
Apart from his impressive figures, the noticeable aspect was Harshal’s bowling in the death overs. The right-arm pacer bowled the 18th and 20th over, conceding only 4 and 1 run respectively.
Speaking after the game, Harshal said he was told well in advance that he will be the death overs for RCB this season.
“When I was traded from Delhi Capitals, I was told what role I will play for the franchise,” he said at the post-match press conference.
“There were clear instructions that I will be bowling in the last two overs (he bowled 18th and 20th). That gave me a lot of clarity. It helped me prepare certain plans against batters and kept my preparations concise.”
Harshal said that change of pace and the slow yorkers have been his biggest strength.
“The ball started reversing at one stage. It was important to bowl the yorkers and slower balls,” he said.
Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya and Marco Jansen were his victims in the match and the pacer said he has been delivering those slower yorkers that got rid of Kishan and Jansen for almost two seasons now.
“Just that when you don’t get wickets of slow yorkers, people don’t tend to see that. I always had the yorker but earlier couldn’t take it into the game.
Leading up to the tournament, Harshal Patel intensely practiced bowling yorkers to get it right during the game.
“In the past 15-20 days, I was trying to put myself into situations.”
Having played a lot of IPL cricket, he understands how situation can turn from good to bad.
“You always want to start well. I am in my 10th season and I know that how a season can quickly go from good to bad.”
RCB will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their next game on Wednesday (April 14).
(With PTI inputs)
