The Royal Challengers Bangalore was off to a winning start in the Indian Premier League 2021. It tamed defending champion Mumbai Indians by three wickets in the season opener at the MA Chidambaram (Chepauk) Stadium in Chennai on Friday.
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RCB's performance was aided mainly by uncapped Indian pacer Harshal Patel, whose five-wicket haul on debut with RCB was seemingly the turning point. Following the same, RCB skipper Virat Kohli hailed the excellent performance by the 30-year-old lad, claiming that it was his spell that made the difference.
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"We brought Harshal in a trade from Delhi. He is relishing the responsibility and is clear with his plans. He was the difference today. He is going to be our death bowler. As a captain, you want players with clarity, and he has that," Kohli said during the post-match press conference, reports PTI.
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Following his performance, Harshal revealed that he was educated on his role as a death-over bowler and he tried to execute his role to utmost perfection. "When I was traded from Delhi Capitals, I was told what role I would play for the franchise. There were clear instructions that I will be bowling in the last two overs. That gave me a lot of clarity. It helped me prepare certain plans against batters and kept my preparations concise," he said during the presser.
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He also focused on bowling slow yorkers, which indeed made hitting difficult by the MI batsmen. "Just that when you don't get wickets of slow yorkers, people don't tend to see that. I always had the yorker but earlier couldn't take it into the game. In the past 15-20 days, I was trying to put myself into situations," he concluded.
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Overall, Harshal has had a decent stint in the IPL, claiming 51 wickets in 49 games at an economy of 8.69. Overall, in Twenty20, he has claimed 103 in 97 at 7.86, while Friday's fifer was his first in the format.
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