IPL 2022: Plan was to keep it on a good length, says RR's Kuldeep Sen after match-winning four-wicket haul
Apr 27, 2022
Pune (Maharashtra) [India], April 27 : Rajasthan Royals' bowler Kuldeep Sen said that he intended on bowling good lengths in the match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium on Tuesday.
Kuldeep picked up a four-wicket haul against RCB and helped the Rajasthan Royals' to overtake the Gujarat Titans (GT) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to the top of the table.
The pacer said that he got an idea of the pitch's nature after watching RCB bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Mohammed Siraj.
"I missed the last few matches with an injury at the nets, it's coming up well now. Watching the first innings and the way Siraj and Harshal bowled, I realized that the ball was stopping from a good length, so Sanju told me to hit the deck hard, the plan was to keep it on a good length. We didn't want to concede easy runs," said Kuldeep Sen in a post-match presentation.
Kuldeep scalped the all-important wickets of RCB skipper Faf du Plessis and hard-hitting batter Glenn Maxwell. After the two wickets, he found himself on a hat-trick, but he couldn't achieve the milestone.
Coming to the match, four-wicket haul by Kuldeep Sen and an unbeaten knock of 56 runs by Riyan Parag powered Rajasthan Royals to victory by 29 runs over Royal Challengers Bangalore at MCA stadium. RCB were never really on the chase, and in the end, they were bundled out for 115 in 19.3 overs.
Chasing 145, RCB had a pathetic start as their star batter Virat Kohli continued having a poor form with the bat and departed early after scoring only 9 runs in the second over. He was caught by Riyan Parag on Prasidh Krishna's delivery.
Opener and skipper Faf du Plessis was joined by Rajat Patidar and the duo tried to provide some momentum to Bangalore but the former was caught by Jos Buttler, with only 37 runs on the board, in the 7th over. It was followed by Glenn Maxwell's wicket on the delivery, leaving RCB's total at 37/3.
Patidar was joined by Shahbaz Ahmed, who then anchored the innings for some time. Ravichandran Ashwin sent Patidar back to the dugout in the 10th over with the team's total at 58/4. With a total of 30 runs left to win in the last over, it was Kuldeep Sen who put the last nail in the coffin and took Harshal Patel's wicket to provide Rajasthan with a victory by 29 runs.
With this win, Rajasthan Royals moved up to the top of the points table, with six wins in eight matches. Royal Challengers Bangalore, on the other hand, remained at fifth place, with five wins in nine games.
