After Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 3 wickets in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 clash at the DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai on Wednesday (March 30), Ravi Shastri heaped accolades on seamer Harshal Patel of the RCB.

Harshal Patel does not get overawed to bowl to any batter, according to Ravi Shastri, whose term as India coach came to an end recently after the T20 World Cup 2021.

With the way the competition has gone so far, resulting in high-scoring games, KKR made just 128 runs, which was an easy target to achieve for RCB. KKR's top order flopped badly, but hard-hitting Andre Russell looked like turning it on in the middle overs. Harshal Patel was called for his services by Faf du Plessis and he performed up to the mark.

Harshal was instrumental in the team's success, particularly in the death overs, bowling two maidens and capturing two key wickets of Andre Russell (25) and Sam Billings (14). After Mohammad Siraj, he became only the second bowler in IPL history to bowl two maidens in a single match.

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Harshal, the purple cap holder from last season, bowled four overs for 11 runs at an economy rate of 2.80, owing to two maidens.

"I have had chats with him in the Indian team, he knows his bowling. He is confident and he is not overawed bowling to anybody. It looked as if he was spared for Andre Russell, which is a big thing. A lot of people can get overawed and intimidated.”

"He was very clear in his mind that he was going to bowl wide and he will take the pace off the ball and see how it goes after that. There has been a big improvement in his bowling and he understands his game and keeps it simple," Shastri said on Star Sports.

On April 5th, Royal Challengers Bangalore will face Rajasthan Royals at Wankhede Stadium at Mumbai.