You have to have a big heart when bowling at the death while trying to execute your plans, insisted Rajasthan Royals medium pacer Sandeep Sharma after recording the ongoing IPL season's best bowling performance.
Bowling after a three-week injury layoff, the 30-year-old Sharma wreaked havoc in the Mumbai Indians camp with a splendid 5 for 18 on Monday.
"In this year's IPL, batters are going big and with the impact player rule, there is an extra batter so the games are high-scoring. You have to have a big heart while bowling at the death and try to execute your plans and bowl good balls," he said after RR's nine-wicket win over MI.
Sharma, who started off as a new-ball exponent in the IPL, has been tasked to bowl the death overs by the Royals in the three games that he has played this season.
"Even today you ask me where I feel comfortable, I'll say it's with the new ball. With the old ball, you have to adapt and evolve as a bowler," he said.
Sharma returned to the RR playing XI after recuperating from a side strain that kept him out for close to a month.
"I was working hard towards my fitness for the last three weeks. I had two practice sessions before the game, my main focus was to execute the variations that I did tonight."
Against MI, Sharma's scalps included the dangerous Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, the big hitting Tim David, Ishan Kishan and Gerald Coetzee.
He took three wickets in the final over, restricting MI to 179 despite a 99-run stand between Varma and Nehal Wadhera.
"If you're bowling at the death, it can go both ways. Sometimes, you go for runs, and when you're lucky enough you end up getting a wicket. When we started, the wicket was low and slow. My plan was to keep bowling those cutters and it came off nicely tonight." he said.
MI optimistic despite loss to RR
Mumbai Indians fell to their fifth loss of the season but young batter Nehal Wadhera remained optimistic about the five-time champions' chances of qualifying for the playoffs.
"MI need to win all their games from here and we need to tighten our socks. We need to raise our game and figure out where we have been going wrong or where we have been going right so that we can rectify our mistakes whenever we return," Wadhera said after the match.
The 23-year-old, who smashed a splendid 24-ball 49, pointed out that MI aren't new to being involved in a mid-table muddle, having risen from the proverbial ashes time and again.
"We have been in such a situation in earlier seasons as well, and we have, you know, upped our game from there and qualified.
"So, we are optimistic even right now. We will continue the process we are following and win the games for the team. We win as a team, and we lose as a team,” Wadhera added.
