Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan showered praise on Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s bowling battery after they registered a five-wicket win against Lucknow Super Giants at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Wednesday.
RCB bowled a total of 51 dot balls against LSG and their bowlers were right on the money. While Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned with figures of 3-27 in his quota of four overs, Rasikh Salam Dar bagged 4-24 in his spell.
Furthermore, Josh Hazlewood bowled an economical spell of 1-20 against LSG.
Irfan Pathan said on his YouTube Channel, “Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood bowled brilliantly. Rasikh Salam emerged as the biggest positive in this match taking four wickets. But the planning was truly commendable. They bowled 51 dot balls against Lucknow. It means nearly 50 percent of the deliveries in a 20-over game were dots. That means Lucknow were never really in the game with their batting.”
Pathan hailed RCB’s bowlers for their brilliant planning and bowling hard lengths as there was less swing on offer.
“They (LSG) must have felt that the pitch would offer good bounce and that they could easily cross the 200-run mark. But Bengaluru’s bowling was planned very well. They knew that there wouldn’t be much swing so they avoided pitching full and instead bowled hard lengths.”
The former swing bowler lauded Rasikh Salam for using back-of-the-hand slower deliveries to bamboozle the LSG batters.
He concluded, “Rasikh Salam is an experienced player. Even though he has played only about 15 matches, the way he bowled in this game was outstanding. He used back-of-the-hand slower balls. He took the first wicket providing the breakthrough, which is always crucial. After that, he dismissed set batters using variations. He got Ayush Badoni out, who was looking well set and in good touch. Then he bowled Mukul Choudhary, a dangerous hitter, clean bowled. Finally, he took the wicket of Avesh Khan.”
“Overall, this performance would have given him a lot of confidence and also boosted Bengaluru’s bowling unit. There are very few bowlers in the entire league who consistently bowl effective back of the hand slower balls. Only a few like Ashok Sharma, Brijesh Sharma and now Rasikh Salam stand out in that skill,” he added.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru will next take on Delhi Capitals at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, on Saturday.
