Mumbai Indians were on the receiving end of another nail-biter and this time it was newbie Krishnappa Gowtham whose unbeaten cameo of 33 runs off just 11 balls helped the Rajasthan Royals register a thrilling three-wicket win over the visitors at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Sunday.
At one point it looked like it was all over for Rajasthan, as at one point 38 runs were needed off 14 balls, but Gowtham made it possible.
Rajasthan skipper Ajinkya Rahane was mighty impressed with the Karnataka lad’s effort. After the match Rahane said, “I still can’t believe what happened. I just want to give credit to my bowlers for the way they came back after 14 overs because it looked like they’d get to 180-190. But in the end, KG’s knock was unbelievable. In the time-out, the plan was to take it deep. We knew we had hitters like Jos, Ben, Klassen, and Jofra who could hit the ball a long way. We knew that we were always just two big shots away.”
He further added, “Rahul batted really well at the top of the order last year, and that is the combination we wanted to go in with. It looks like we’ll still continue with that. We are happy to see Jofra back, his spell and the way Jaydev and Dhawal bowled in the middle overs was the key. Jofra can bowl at 140+ and his pace and accuracy was amazing. He’s always thinking about wickets and when you do that your mindset is always positive which is the way to go about.”
After the blistering innings, Gowtham expressed satisfaction after taking his team home. He said, “I’m on top of the world. I had a decent first-class year. The captain asked me to believe and that’s what I did. It worked. You just need a good hit with 6 needed off 3 balls. That’s what I was thinking when I denied the single.”
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