IPL 2021: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) was powered to a victory in their very first IPL 2021 match by superb innings from Nitish Rana. The left-hander scored a dashing 80 off 56 against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday night, at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
After the match, Nitish caught up with Harbhajan Singh who interviewed him for the official website of IPL. Here Nitish revealed his batting strategy and also the significance of his fingers pointing downwards celebration.
“This was for my friends,” Rana told Harbhajan. “The meaning behind this was that we are a large group of friends and we really like a song called ‘brown munde‘. I had made a decision before the start of the season that I would make this sign (on reaching a landmark).”
IPL 2021: Nitish Rana and Harbhajan Singh raps
Speaking about the innings, Rana said: “Feeling good, because it is the first game of the new season. It’s good that I have got such a good start to the season. I’ll try and carry this form forward and, as much as possible, help the team.”
When Bhajji asked him about his batting approach at the start of the innings, against Bhuvneshwar Kumar in particular, the KKR batsman said he waited for the ball to be bowled in his half.
“Since it was a fresh wicket, I decided that I would keenly observe what the ball does and how the pitch behaves. After that, whenever the ball was in my half, I felt I should go for my shots. My attempt was to attack whenever I got a loose ball,” Nitish explained.
At the end of the interview, Bhajji asked Rana to sing a few lines from the ‘brown munde’ song which he and his friends like so much. The rap song was hummed with hesitation by the KKR opener but he got good support from the off-spinning legend.
If Rana continues to rap with the bat as he did in the first match, KKR are in for a very exciting season.
IPL 2021: KKR’s Nitish Rana reveals secret behind his unique celebration, raps with Harbhajan Singh