Shreyas Gopal, the Rajasthan Royals leg-spinner, says the dismissals of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in a single contest constituted “the best moment of my cricketing career.”
Gopal dismissed the star duo to help Royals defeat Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets on Tuesday. It was its first win of the competition.
At the post-match press conference here, Shreyas said, “Getting [Kohli and De Villiers out] in same match is a dream for any youngster. It is the best moment of my cricketing career and definitely one of biggest moments of my IPL cricket.”
REPORT | Rajasthan beats Bangalore by seven wickets
He added: “Any wicket is a big wicket but obviously these two are big names so it feels that much more better. But I feel I shouldn’t be getting ahead of myself and stay calm.”
‘Hard to plan’
The 25-year-old admitted it was hard to devise a plan against batsmen of such stature. “Honestly, I feel it is hard to plan a dismissal for batsmen like them. You just need to be able to bowl your best ball and try and hit the best area on that particular wicket. It is all based on the situation. When you land on the ground you obviously do your homework. What the type of ground is, how the wicket is reacting, how the opposition has been playing. So for example [K.] Gowtham bowling three of his overs in PowerPlay felt like a good idea at that moment,” he said.
Shreyas was keen to learn from more experienced cricketers in his team. “In between overs I just go to [Ajinkya Rahane, Jos Buttler or Steve Smith] and have a couple of words and try to understand what they think about the game because they have a lot of experience,” he said.
Royals leaked run in the death overs. Commenting on the bowling unit’s profligacy during these overs, he said, “In [T20s], you will definitely be hit for boundaries depending on the kind of overs you are bowling. Look at Jofra [Archer]. He is bowling two overs in the PowerPlay and then bowling back in the death overs. So he is bowling hardest overs in the game. Jofra and [other] fast bowlers are probably bowling the hardest overs in the match so it is understood that they will go for six-seven runs per over; they will have bad days. It is more important that guys who are having a good day should lift the team.”
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