Sri Lankan leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga has expressed his elation after taking a five-wicket haul to help Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 67 runs in the 54th match of the ongoing IPL 2022 on May 8 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Batting first, RCB posted 192/3 on the board against the SRH, thanks to a stunning knock of 73* off 50 balls from captain Faf Du Plessis and a valuable contribution of 48 runs from Rajat Patidar, and a late blitz of 30* in 8 balls from Dinesh Karthik.
Defending the total, RCB had a disastrous start as both openers, Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson, were out for ducks.
Later, Hasaranga dismissed the entire middle order of the SRH and went on to dismiss Shashank Singh in the 17th over to complete his maiden five-wicket haul in IPL, as SRH was bowled out for 125 to lose the match by 67 runs on Sunday.
Hasaranga said at the post-match media interaction: “I'm a wicket-taking bowler and the team also thinks like that. I try to bowl a lot of dot balls and try to get wickets. That's my role in the team. I'm really happy with my position right now. I try to take wickets in middle overs and put pressure on the opposition.”
He added, “This year, four players from Sri Lanka are doing really well, especially Maheesh Theekshana (Chennai), Dushmantha Chameera (Lucknow), and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (Punjab). For us our three main bowlers playing in this IPL, that's a good experience for us when we go back to Sri Lanka.”
Meanwhile, SRH’s pace sensation Umran Malik had a poor outing, as he leaked 25 runs in his two overs, and Hasaranga said that RCB’s strategy was to go after him upfront to put early pressure on him.
Hasaranga signed off by saying, “Umran bowled fast, a lot of back-of-the-length deliveries. On this wicket, there was not much bounce, it was good to bat, that's why our batters took on him in the first over. He got under pressure after we scored 20 runs against him. That was the plan we had against him.”
(With PTI Inputs)
