New Delhi, April 19 (IANS) Former South Africa wicketkeeper Mark Boucher heaped praise on Punjab Kings pacer Arshdeep Singh for leading the bowling attack and taking crucial wickets of Phil Salt and Virat Kohli against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.
Arshdeep returned with the figures of 2-23 in his three overs while Marco Jansen, Yuzvendra Chahal and Harpreet Brar also bagged two wickets apiece in a rain-truncated 14 overs game. It was a horror show from RCB barring Tim David, who scored a 26-ball half-century, as the home side was restricted to 95/9.
In reply, Nehal Wadhera’s 19-ball 33 decorated with three sixes and as many fours powered Punjab to its fifth win of the season. The result kept RCB waiting for their first home win of the season.
“We spoke about him (Arshdeep) being a match-up to Phil Salt, and that’s exactly what he was tonight. What I really enjoyed was how he changed his length – when they saw that a full length wasn’t working, he pulled back to a hard length, and it worked. He led the bowling unit well, picked up wickets, and the whole attack bowled aggressively. Some great captaincy from Shreyas Iyer too,” Boucher said on JioHotstar.
“They’ll be very happy with that win, especially after the tight finish in the last game. I think for Ricky, there was a moment where he thought it might go down to the wire again. But Nehal Wadhera came in, and as we’ve seen so often, when he plays, he plays with freedom. He’s striking the ball very sweetly at the moment and finished off what could’ve been another close one,” he added.
Punjab Kings will next play the reverse fixture against RCB at the New PCA Stadium, New Chandigarh on Sunday.
–IANS
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