The Ahmedabad stadium was full of joy as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) lifted their first IPL title yesterday. After the match, RCB pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar shared his thoughts on the game and praised Krunal Pandya’s efforts.
“It looked very much like it [on defending the total]. We thought 180 would be a good score to defend. And we got almost 190. Ten more than what we thought. And that was the executor of the last seven,” Bhuvneshwar said.
He later credited Krunal Pandya’s impressive bowling performance. Krunal took 2 wickets for just 17 runs and was named Player of the Match. His key strength in the final was how he changed his pace. He bowled slower deliveries to deceive the batters, which helped RCB gain control.
“He’s seen a lot of counter bowling. I think he [Krunal Pandya] spent 10 to 16 hours. That’s what he bowled in the middle. But yes, he changed the pace a little bit. We talked about it, that we don’t want to overuse it. We’ll use other options and then use a slow option as well,” Bhuvneshwar explained.
“I Just Backed Myself” – Krunal Pandya
Krunal Pandya took the key wickets of Prabhsimran Singh and Josh Inglis. Talking about his strategy, he said:
“Again, when we batted the first innings, we realised—I was sitting outside and had a discussion with the batters—and I realised that the slower you bowl, it is better and more difficult [for the batters].”
“But again, in this format, as a bowler, you need guts to do that, you know, because the margin of error becomes very minimum. But again, I just backed myself and thought that if I am able to vary my pace and keep it more on the slower side, I create chances rather than just coming and firing it8 m up.”
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