MUMBAI: Rajasthan Royals (RR) assistant coach Shane Bond heaped praise on the team’s collective bowling effort against Mumbai Indians (MI) highlighting the perfect use of the swing and bounce conditions by the bowlers.
New Zealand pacer Trent Boult rattled the MI’s top order and claimed the prize wickets of Rohit Sharma, Naman Dhir, and Dewald Brevis for first-ball ducks as he reduced Mumbai Indians to 14/3 in the first three overs. Boult claimed 3-15 in his three overs before ending his quota with 3-22.
After Boult’s three-for, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal tormented MI’s batting claiming 3-11 in his four overs. South African Nandre Burger also claimed two wickets as RR restricted MI to 125/9 and later chased the target in 15.3 overs with six wickets in hand on Monday night.
"The pacers were right on top starting with Trent Boult, who used the swinging conditions very well. He pitched the ball in the right place and got the off-pitch movement for which he is known. Burger with his extra pace ability and bounce hit the right length, so overall it was the collective effort from the bowlers to restrict MI’s dominating batting attack to below par score, " said Bond in the post-match press conference.
Bond, who is also the bowling coach of RR, acknowledged Chahal's effort in wiping out the MI's middle-order and added that the leg-spinner might be considered for India again if he keeps up his current form.
"The competition is pretty tough, so one of the real challenges for any bowler coming into this tournament is to forget that there is a (T20) World Cup (coming up), and you start bowling to get into the World Cup team. If your (IPL) team is successful, you are in a winning team, selections and rewards come from that. That has more of been our focus, to forget about all that other noise from the outside and just work really hard for each other.
"If we do that, I have got no doubt people are going to start talking, like you (the journalist asking the question) are now, about Chahal and whether he will feature in the World Cup or not. He is bowling beautifully."
The bigger picture of the match was Riyan Parag's 54 runs not out which set the chase of 126. Chasing 126 for victory, Rajasthan were in trouble at 48/3 before Riyan Parag came to their rescue, adding 40 runs off 35 balls with Ravichandran Ashwin and then unleashing a flurry of shots towards the end to claim a comfortable victory.
With Parag, who struck five fours and three sixes, remaining unbeaten on 54, RR reached 127/4 in 15.3 overs to seal a comfortable victory with a lot to spare.
Bond praised Parag’s effort with the bat and drew a parallel with ‘young Suryakumar Yadav’ and found him as a player of "extreme talent".
"He sort of reminds me a little bit of Suryakumar, who came to Mumbai a few years ago. He looks like that - he has got extreme talent. He has just matured as a cricketer, even though he is only 22. He has had an outstanding domestic season, obviously, batting up the order, ” said Bond.
"Riyan started so young, you forget that he was 17 or something, playing in one of the toughest spots in a batting line-up: No. 6. You look at the characters who finish games around the IPL, they are generally pretty experienced guys, Tim Davids, David Miller… these are high-quality players who play international cricket. Riyan had been tasked with that for a number of years. He is still a very young man, but he has got this wealth of experience behind him now.
"We are getting the best of him. The investment that RR have made of him, it's starting to reap the rewards. It is pretty exciting what he could offer for the rest of the season for us, " he added
Riding on a good domestic season, Parag, in the first match, scored a 29-ball 43 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSg) and then scored an unbeaten 84 off 45 deliveries against Delhi Capitals (DC).
In Syed Mushtaq Ali T20, Parag was the leading run-getter with 510 runs at a strike rate of 182.79 and also claimed 11 wickets. In the Deodhar Trophy, playing for East Zone, he hammered 354 runs in five matches, the most in the tournament and also picked up 11 wickets bowling off-spin.
He carried his form into the Ranji Trophy, where he amassed 378 runs at an average of 75.60 in four matches, including two centuries.