R Sai Kishore won the Player of the Match award for his figures of 4/33 vs PBKS. (Image: Sportzpics)
Following his crucial four-wicket haul against PBKS, R Sai Kishore credited the head coach Ashish Nehra for creating an environment for the players to play a fearless brand of cricket.
The Gujarat Titans have taken their revenge as they beat Punjab Kings on their home turf at the Mullanpur Stadium in Mohali with a victory by three wickets. It was the spinners that gave them the platform in the first innings as R Sai Kishore stole the show with a four-wicket haul against PBKS as they were bundled out for just 142 runs in 20 overs
Sai Kishore was handed the Player of the Match award for his efforts with the ball and when speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, the left-arm orthodox bowler was just focused on enjoying his time out in the middle.
The spinner was last featured in the tournament during the clash against CSK back on March 26, making it almost a month between his last two games.
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“Just trying to give my 120% for the team, playing after 20-25 days, so just wanted to go there, enjoy myself and give it my everything,” said Kishore.
The Tamil Nadu-based spinner credited the head coach, Ashish Nehra for the environment created within the team which allows them to play a fearless brand of cricket.
He added,” Ashish Nehra has created a beautiful environment where we can be fearless and play for the team regardless of the result. He told me to enjoy myself and gave me a lot of freedom to express myself”.
The skipper of TN’s domestic side revealed his plans to make use of the change of pace to his advantage. This was prominent when he picked up his first wicket to dismiss Jitesh Sharma as he dragged his length back and slowed the pace of his delivery which went through the batter and crashed onto the stumps.
His second scalp was the dangerous Ashutosh Sharma who looked to clear the boundary at the area between covers and deep point but ended up going to the fielder to take the catch. He used the dimensions of the ground to his favour in this instance.
His third wicket was another dangerous batter, Shashank Singh with a flat delivery at length which caught the batter off-guard as he prodded it straight back onto the bowler’s hands for the catch.
His final wicket was that of Harpreet Brar who looked to clear the boundary but the lack of pace meant that the ball was not able to clear the fielder as the man at long-on, Shahrukh Khan jumped to take a brilliant catch by the ropes.
The bowler also revealed,” Instinctively I felt the wicket and thought that a change of pace was the way to go here, it worked out beautifully”.
He did not forget to thank the fans and his teammates for chipping in as GT now stands sixth in the points table with 8 points in as many games.
“Credit to everyone who showed up today. Rahul played an amazing knock once again. Rashid and Noor bowled beautifully, overall complete team effort,” Kishore concluded
