Harshal Patel showcased his prowess with a fine performance to help Royal Challengers Bangalore prevent Sunrisers Hyderabad from posting a challenging total.
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Harshal Patel made his presence felt while representing Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 encounter against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Harshal registered a three-wicket haul to help restrict the Hyderabad-based franchise to a total of just 141 runs for the loss of seven wickets. The Indian all-rounder accounted for the dismissals of Kane Williamson, Wriddhiman Saha and Jason Holder in a statement of intent. He received quality support from Australian all-rounder Daniel Christian, who sent Jason Roy and Priyam Garg back to the pavilion.
“I have a couple (of more franchises) left in my young legs (laughs), I’m still enjoying it. Happy to have got a couple of wickets. Roy and Wiliamson were going on well, I think it’s a good effort to restrict them to 140 odd. Lucky one for me, a bit of self-preservation (on the return catch), Jason absolutely smashed that, I got lucky that it came straight into my hands. was going well and it was a good wicket at that stage, was an important wicket as well. Should track this down, I think this was a 170-18- runs wicket, it’s really good. If one of the guys at the top of the order gets 70 or 80 odd, it’s a par total, a good start and needs one of our top-4 to get going. I don’t think there’s any sign of dew out there, the ball did stay dry,” said Christian as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Roy was the top run-getter for the Hyderabad-based franchise, accumulating 44 runs from 38 deliveries. The same was recorded on the back of five boundaries. Skipper Kane Williamson was the second-highest run-scorer, with 31 runs from 29 balls.
Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to field, with the Bangalore-based franchise already qualified for the playoffs of the 2021 season. SRH on the other hand, are out of contention for a spot in the playoffs with a win against their Southern rivals, nothing more than a source of pride. A win for RCB will help them mount a strong surge for finishing in the top two spots of the points table, which holds great significance considering the additional opportunities for reaching the final.
“We are gonna bowl first. Have seen the wicket eases out in the second half. We had a bit of a jolt at the start of this leg. Against Chennai, we could have made a game out of it. We were 15-20 short. Every team wants to qualify with a few games to spare. Having qualified, we would want to back ourselves to deliver when under pressure. Same side for us,” said Kohli as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Williamson hailed the enthusiasm shown by the young players in the setup.
“Exciting opportunity for us. I think as an environment, we would try to evolve. There is still some focus. There is a lot of enthusiasm thanks to the youth in the team. We are going with the same side from the last match,” said Williamson.
