"Was difficult surface to bat, Nehal Wadhera made chase easy for us": PBKS spinner Harpreet Brar after win over RCB
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 19 (ANI): Punjab Kings (PBKS) continued their winning run in the ongoing edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), defeating Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by 5 wickets at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Friday in a rain-curtained encounter.
After the match was reduced to 14 overs, Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to bowl. Punjab's bowling unit, comprising Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Harpreet Brar, used the conditions to their advantage and took two wickets each.
With Xavier Bartlett also picking up a wicket, PBKS restricted the opposition to 95/9 in 14 overs, despite Tim David scoring a half-century.
Nehal Wadhera contributed an unbeaten 33 off 19 balls to help Punjab complete the run chase in 12.1 overs with 5 wickets to spare.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar explained the reason behind his side's decision to bowl.
Meanwhile, Punjab captain Sheyas Iyer also praised the bowling unit and said that his side adapted well to the conditions after electing to bowl.
"No hadn't seen the wickets before. When the covers were lifted, our coaches are so experienced, they knew that the bowlers will get help from the surface. After we won the toss, our seamers and spinners took help from the wicket. Yuzvendra Chahal bowled well, and I also took two wickets. It was not easy to bat on this surface. 95 was a good total on the surface. The way Nehal Wadhera batted was commendable. He stuck to the end and won the game for us," Iyer said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
"To be honest, we did not know how the wicket was going to play, and I personally feel the bowlers adapted according to it. When I had a chat with Arshdeep, he said, the hard length balls were very difficult to hit on this wicket because I did not see a single six off a fats bowler hit down the ground. That was the chatter going around, and they were fantastic in executing it," the right-hand batter continued.
Iyer also described Chahal, who registered figures of 2/11 in his 3 overs on the night, as the 'best bowler in the IPL'.
"Personally, I had a chat with Chahal. I told him you are a match-winner and you need to get us wickets as much as possible. You don't need to be safe in your approach, and he has got the capability of bouncing back. That is what we appreciate of him as a leggie. Probably he is the best bowler in the IPL so far," he added.
Meanwhile, Brar praised Wadhera for his tremendous batting performance and explained how the 24-year-old has grown over the years.
"Nehal is a very good player. He has been playing IPL for past 2-3 years. He has been a key player for Punjab in the domestic circuit. He played really well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy knockout games. He has been a really good player from the start. He also played well for the India U-19 team. When he is scoring runs here, so as a senior, it makes us really proud," Harpreet Brar said as quoted by the PBKS press release.
The left-arm spinner further said that Nehal made the chase easier for Punjab on a tricky batting surface.
"As per the wicket, this is no scoring match. The way it is behaving today, it was a score of 180 on any surface. The level of bowlers in IPL was a difficult game. The way Nehal batted and scored boundaries made the game easy for us," the 29-year-old player signed off.
Punjab Kings will next play the reverse fixture against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the New PCA Stadium, New Chandigarh, on Sunday, April 20. (ANI)
(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)
