Nitish Rana had never taken a wicket in the powerplay in the IPL. Yet, the KKR captain decided to bowl himself to an in-form opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler.
Duly, Jaiswal blasted Nitish Rana for 26 runs in the first over and gave Rajasthan Royals a stunning start in their chase of a small target of 150 runs. Jaiswal’s flurry of runs in the first over against Nitish Rana gave RR the solid start they would have wanted and set the tone for their chase, which they gunned down in 13.1 overs, jumping to the 3rd place in the points table and boosting their NRR.
I thought I could gamble as a part-timer: Nitish Rana
After the match, Nitish Rana was asked about his decision to bowl himself the first over. While many would have thought that the KKR skipper would take responsibility for his poor decision, Nitish Rana reckoned he doesn’t listen to the outside noise and would do things his own way.
“Don’t care what the world says about me. I bowled first because I thought I could gamble as a part-timer and get the in-form Jaiswal out but it was his day,” Nitish Rana said.
KKR all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer back his skipper’s decision to bowl himself, stating that with a left-hander in Jaiswal on strike, it was not a bad decision for an off-spinner to bowl, though it didn’t come off today.
“With a lefthander (Jaiswal) at the crease and him being an off-spinner I don’t think it was a wrong option,” Venkatesh said. “We all know what he’s capable of with the bowl. He has picked crucial wickets in his career. Unfortunately, it didn’t go in our favour, had he picked up the wicket (of Jaiswal), it would have been a captain’s masterstroke. These things happen on the field.”
Iyer further back his skipper as a bowler. “The wicket was holding a little bit and was on the slower side. We wanted to exploit the spin with the new ball. It didn’t work out so the questions. But Rana is an unbelievable bowler, he has come up and picked wickets wherever he bowled with economical bowling. One game would not make him a bad bowler.”
Nitish Rana praised young Jaiswal’s entertaining knock. “Jaiswal’s innings was praiseworthy. Today was one of those days in life when everything went in his favour. I thought 180 was par. We made a lot of mistakes with the bat and it’s the reason for losing out on two points,” Rana said.
