Experienced spinner of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Harbhajan Singh has dismantled Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by his spin bowling at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday during the first encounter between CSK and RCB. Later, in the media interaction, he expressed that he is hopeful of getting more overs to bowl this year.
“It is nice to be on the winning side and contributing, especially taking the wickets of Virat (Kohli) AB (de Villiers) and Moeen (Ali). This is the kind of performance that is expected from me, being the senior bowler in the side. Though people might think that I am old but the experience is something I have gained over the years, which no one can take away from me. I am glad to contribute to the win,” Harbhajan said after the match.
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“It was a wicket where it was holding a bit. We honestly didn’t expect it to turn so much as it did today. We played a practice match here and the wicket was a good one. Would have loved to play on a wicket that wouldn’t spin as much as this did,” he further added.
However, Harbhajan said that he was happy to get the ball in the powerplay.
“It is nice to get wickets under your belt. Last year, I played a few games, bowled few overs, went for runs and didn’t get to bowl later. It is good to get a game like today and get wickets. It gives a lot of confidence for players like me who don’t play a lot of cricket and spend time with my daughter and family. Hopefully, from here I get to bowl a little more than what I have got. I am ready to bowl six or even 20 overs whenever the team needs me,” he said.
Meanwhile, Vikram Solanki, the assistant coach of RCB, also felt that the pitch was not ideal but said RCB could have done better.
“I don’t think we played well enough and CSK was by far the better side. We were surprised by spin and lack of pace and it spun far more than we thought. It was probably not an ideal pitch as it was not an even contest. You need an opportunity to score as well,” Solanki said.
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“Perhaps 120-130 would have been enough, but batting first in the first game in the tournament we needed to be brave and say maybe should have looked to get to 100 and look at things. We needed just one partnership and if necessary could have even played ugly and dug in to stop the rut of constant wickets,” Solanki further added.
