Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), who was one of the most consistent performers in IPL 2021, lost in the Eliminator to KKR by 4 wickets and ended a really good Indian Premier League campaign.
Former KKR, DC, and India captain Gautam Gambhir was quite impressed with the RCB quick Harshal Patel named him as the ‘Player of the Tournament’ in IPL 2021 as the latter is the leading wicket taker in this tournament with 32 wickets to his name in 15 matches.
"Look at Harshal Patel today; he bowled the fifth over which was probably the toughest after Garton went for 15-20 in the fourth over... He bowled the fifth over and got the wicket.
He bowled in the death and got wickets. So he's done probably the toughest thing that RCB were expecting him to do, and he came out with flying colours. Irrespective of how many runs and wickets players will get, he's the player of the tournament for me already,” Gambhir said in his chat with ESPNcricinfo.
The 30-year-old Patel had a dream run with the ball this year. Even though RCB failed to get over the line in the Eliminator, the right-arm quick returned the figures of 2-19 in his spell of 4 overs with two crucial wickets of in-form KKR openers Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer.
“It's unfortunate. He deserved to play in the final. He's been the standout performer for them... The way he has carried on the burden of death bowling for RCB, which has been a concern for so many years... he's literally handled that pressure single-handedly. Hats off to him, and he's had a fabulous, fabulous IPL,” the left-hand batter concluded.
While Harshal Patel was on the verge of breaking Dwayne Bravo’s record of 32 wickets, RCB’s Devdutt Padikkal dropped a catch in the 16th over which meant Patel ended his IPL 2021 campaign with 32 wickets and walked away with the record for the most wickets by an uncapped pacer in an IPL season.
(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)
