Former Australian skipper Aaron Finch showered praise on his compatriot Josh Hazlewood after Royal Challengers Bengaluru registered a comprehensive five-wicket win against Lucknow Super Giants at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, on Wednesday.
Hazlewood, who replaced Jacob Duffy in the playing XI, returned with impressive figures of 1-20 in his quota of four overs. The Australian pacer accounted for Nicholas Pooran when he bamboozled the West Indies batter, showing him that he would bowl a slower delivery but bowled at full tilt.
Thus, Hazlewood was awarded Player of the Match for his fine performance as RCB were able to bundle out LSG at 146.
Aaron Finch said on ESPN Cricinfo, “The most important thing is that every team that he has played for, whether it has been MI, CSK, where he has won a title, you know what you are going to get day in and day out. That’s what you want as a captain. He’ll run in and he’ll bowl the same stuff day after day and get the results. No one is surprised any time he does well. Because you have to bat really well [against him]. Very rarely do you see him go for 50.”
On the other hand, former Indian batter Ambati Rayudu questioned LSG’s batting tactics. The former CSK batter said Rishabh Pant’s team was going after everything without assessing the conditions.
He added, “Good teams assess the conditions really well when you are batting first. I didn’t see anything of that sort happen in the Lucknow batting order. They were just going for everything. You knew that the ball was actually stopping in the pitch. It was bouncing a little more and just gripping a little bit. You know it’s a 170 wicket. You need to play as if you are chasing 170 or 180.”
Lucknow Super Giants will next take on Punjab Kings at New Chandigarh on Sunday.
