Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) fast bowler Andrew Tye has revealed, on Tuesday (24 April), that the team was at a very confusing state who should be sent to bowl in the last over during their narrow 4-run win in an IPL 2018 encounter against the Delhi Daredevils (DD) on Monday.
But KXIP skipper R Ashwin took a conscious decision to sent Tye to bowl the 18th over and 17-year-old Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb-ur-Rahman to bowl the last over, and Australian pacer says the youngsters did a fantastic job against the DD by breaking the partnership between Rahul Tewatia and Shreyas Iyer.
DD needed 17 runs in the final over to win the IPL 2018 match but Iyer managed only 12 before being dismissed in the last delivery by Mujeeb at the Kotla.
As per reports in Sports Star Live, Australian speedster said, “Nothing is out of reach unless it is 37 (runs) or more (in the final over). We reached a point where we had to decide whether we make Mujeeb bowl, or take the game out of reach of the other team and save him to bowl the last over. It was a conscious decision to give the ball to Mujeeb. He did a fine job.”
Tye further added, “The way Shreyas (Iyer) and (Rahul) Tewatia were batting; we needed to break the partnership, and it was crucial to break it. That’s why I bowled the 18th over. So we wanted to take the match into the final over and then back the young bowler (Mujeeb).”
He signed off by saying, “We knew the power play was pretty crucial. We scored freely as it was the best time to score out there. When bowling, to be able to try and restrict them would leave us with more chances of coming into the backend. In the end, we backed our spin and tried to put it out of reach for them.”
The 31-year-old Australian pacer is a second-ranked bowler with 9 wickets in 6 matches at an economy rate of 7.91 in the IPL 2018 at the moment.
Even, Tye snatched the honor of Purple Cap holder during KXIP's clash against the Delhi Daredevils from Trent Boult, but Tuesday’s encounter sees Mumbai Indians’ Mayank Markande holding the honor only because of his economy rate 7.42.
