Bengaluru, April 2 While Gujarat Titans’ leg-spinner Rashid Khan conceded 50 plus runs for the fourth time in IPL, left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore varied his pace and used angles well to pick 2-22 and keep Royal Challengers Bengaluru batters little bit quiet in middle overs.
In his superb spell, Kishore surprised everyone by taking a catch off his carrom ball to dismiss Krunal Pandya, a ball which former India head coach Ravi Shastri said on air that it turned and gripped on a pitch which wasn’t a batting paradise at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, as RCB made 169/8.
“To be relevant in T20 cricket, you have to keep evolving. Have been practicing it for the last 3-4 years, have not bowled it anywhere. Was confident to bowl it in the IPL and went with my instinct. It is like a carrom ball, so I get more dip on it. I don't know what it is so I can call it anything,” said Kishore in a mid-innings chat with the broadcasters.
Kishore is now at number three in the IPL 2025 wicket-takers list with six scalps in three games at an economy rate of 7.41. Asked about his assessment of the pitch which wasn’t used last year, Kishore, who played three T20Is for India in 2023, said, “When you bowl into the wicket, with spin, it was assisting the spinners. But you never know until both teams bowl on it. When I was bowling, I was getting purchase.”
Further quizzed about bowling into the wicket rationale, Kishore, who also took out Jitesh Sharma, concluded by saying, “It’s about having a good shape on the ball and trying to spin it as hard as I can - that is what I mean by bowling into the wicket, bowling like a proper red-ball game.”
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