Indian medium pacer Shardul Thakur has revealed that there was a lot of dew in the ground which made it difficult to bowl, before adding that Rohit Sharma just asked him to back his instincts in the final over. Shardul played a major role in the game as he picked up three crucial wickets.
It was a roller coaster game for medium pacer Shardul Thakur who experienced the ebbs and flows of the game more than anyone else. He started off very poorly in the first two overs and leaked 22 runs with a 13 run over in the powerplay. By the time he returned back for his second spell, England were close to the win as they needed 46 off 24 balls with a dangerous Ben Stokes batting on 46 off 22 deliveries.
But he struck twice in as many deliveries and removed both Stokes and Morgan to bring back India in the game. However, with England needing 23 off final six deliveries, he gave away 13 runs in his first three deliveries. But then he showed steely nerves and made a strong comeback giving away only one run in the final three balls, taking the wicket of Chris Jordan in the process. He finished with figures of 3/42 but was key to India’s win.
Speaking in the post-match presentation, the Mumbai pacer asserted that there was a lot of dew and it made it easier for the English batsman and revealed he was finding it hard to grip the ball.
“There was a lot of dew in this match, which wasn’t true of the last three matches. They were swinging hard in the last over, and it was important to bowl a couple of dot balls and then the game was sealed. The dry ball worked for them, and when I tried a slow bouncer it was in the slot and it went for six. If we bowled the slow ones on the stumps it would’ve been easy to hit, so the target was to keep it away from their power zone. If the ball is drier, it’s easier to grip for the knuckle ball,” Shardul said in the post-match presentation, reported Cricbuzz.
He also added that Rohit Sharma told him to back his instincts during the fag end of the game when he was under the pump.
“I am enjoying myself, and bowling in times when batsmen are going hard at us. Hardik had some plans but Rohit just wanted me to back my instinct. He mentioned one side of the ground is shorter and just asked me to keep it in mind and asked me to apply myself.”
