The match, held at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday night, presented a challenging pitch for strokeplay, leading to India posting a modest total of 160/8.Australia, in response, started strongly but found themselves at 144/7 in 18 overs.
With 17 runs needed from 12 balls, Mukesh Kumar (3/32) conceded only seven runs in the 19th over. Arshdeep, who had given away 37 runs in his first three overs, regained his accuracy and rhythm, dismissing Matthew Wade and ultimately securing the game in India’s favour.
“I guess for the big part of the game, for almost the first 19 overs, I was thinking that I gave away too many runs and would be the culprit of the game. But god gave me another chance and I believed in myself. Thanks to god that I defended it,” said Arshdeep on live broadcast after the match ended.
He also acknowledged the “cushion” provided by the batters on a “tricky” pitch.
“To be honest, nothing was going through my mind. Surya (Suryakumar Yadav) bhai told me that whatever happens, happens. The credit goes to our batsmen as well. They gave us a really good total here on a tricky wicket and we had a cushion of an extra 15 to 20 runs,” said the pacer.
Arshdeep admitted that the Indian fast-bowling unit did not perform at its peak in this series and expressed commitment to delivering an improved performance in the upcoming matches.
“According to the standards we have set as a bowling unit in the Indian team, it was not even near par. But a lot of lessons learnt and in the future I will make sure to rectify those mistakes and come back stronger.”
Shreyas Iyer, whose 37-ball 53 contributed to India’s winning total, commended Arshdeep’s final over. He acknowledged the challenging nature of the pitch for batting.
“I’m elated, to be honest, to see everyone chipping in and contributing for the team. The shots, innovation has been on point and I could see Arshdeep’s calmness when he was bowling the last over,” said Iyer.
(IANS Photo)
“To be honest, my mindset was to go boom-boom from ball one. But when I saw three wickets falling down, my mind started calculating what would be the best total on this wicket. Then we had a few batsmen contributing as well. It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on, but if you have a total in mind, you try to play accordingly and today was the right example of how we did it as a team.
“I feel 160 was the right total, which we got eventually. After losing consecutive wickets in the powerplay to get to 160, it was a commendable effort, and to defend it at the same time, brilliant performance by the team.” Iyer added.
(With IANS inputs)
