Ahmedabad (Gujarat) : Rashid Khan heaped praise on his teammate Noor Ahmad, a player who has been a revelation for the defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT).
Noor Ahmad was in the limelight against Mumbai Indians (MI) as he dismissed their power hitters Cameron Green (33) and Suryakumar Yadav (23). “It’s great to have him in the side and sharing the bowling partnership with him since last year. That kid, he just wants to learn and he’s working so hard. Last year the way he was working, bowling lots in the nets, kept asking questions. Even when I was in the gym, he was coming to the gym and saying, ‘Let’s bowl here in the gym.’ At 1 AM and 2 AM, he was bowling with me in the gym. He wanted to get better and perform. He got the opportunity now and he’s been delivering. I am so happy for him that he’s delivering. It’s great news for GT and also for Afghanistan,” Rashid Khan said after the match.
Rashid has been a crucial cog in GT’s machinery and even after achieving a lot of success in his career, he is still looking for areas he can improve in.
“It’s good so far, few things I am working on to be more consistent with line and length. Happy that I got some wickets but at the same time, need to work on a few areas. Looking forward to the rest of the season as well. Those first 3 overs, managed to keep them quiet. As long as you’re hitting the right areas, I feel it’s pretty hard for the batters to go after. That was in my mind,” he said.
While defending 208, captain Hardik Pandya provided Gujarat Titans with a good start as he sent back the opposition captain Rohit Sharma in just the second over. Rohit got a top edge as he looked to pull one to the leg side and Hardik settled under it to pouch a tricky catch on return.
Shami bowled a brilliant third over and beat Ishan Kishan’s outside edge multiple times, conceding just two runs. Green finally got the first boundary of the innings, in the fourth over as he smashed one over long off for a mighty six. MI reached 29/1 at the end of the first six overs.
The pressure was building and it brought rewards as Rashid Khan sent back Kishan (13 off 21) in the 8th over and three balls later, he trapped Impact Player Tilak Varma LBW via a successful review. MI were pushed on the back foot as they reached 58/3 at the halfway mark.
Noor Ahmad added further misery for MI as cleaned up Green (33 off 26) in the next over and had Tim David in the same over to reduce MI to 59/5.
Nehal Wadhera took the attack to Noor Ahmad, hitting a four and a six and Suryakumar swept one for a four but the Afghanistan spinner bounced back to have the ominous-looking Suryakumar (23 off 12) caught and bowled to bounce back hard.
With the required run rate creeping over 18, Wadhera and Piyush Chawla got together and tried to put up a fight with a 24-ball 45-run stand but with 73 needed off 18, Chawla departed, run-out, trying to run through for a bye. Wadhera (40 off 21) departed in the same over, mistiming his scoop to a short fine leg, off Mohit Sharma. It was always going to be an uphill battle as MI kept losing regular wickets and they fell well short of the target as GT won the match by 55 runs.
