IPL 2018 | Yuvi told he was worried I would break his record, says KL Rahul

Indian opener KL Rahul, who made his ODI debut for India in 2017 against Sri Lanka, was one of the most shocking buys in the IPL auction held in January. Many critics questioned the decision of Preity Zinta co-owned Kings XI Punjab management officials who chose to spend a whopping Rs. 11 crore on the Indian batsman cum wicket-keeper. He was one of the most expensive buys of the auction as far as Indian players were concerned as he switched from RCB to the Punjab franchise.

But after yesterday’s match, all the doubts regarding his price tag and his ability to smash the ball over the boundary would have been put to rest. Rahul broke the record held by Sunil Narine to smash the fastest fifty in the IPL in just 14 balls. Narine scored his fifty in fifteen balls in the IPL last year. KL Rahul revealed that when teammate Yuvraj Singh came out to bat he told Rahul that he was scared that the former would break his record of the fastest fifty in T20 cricket (12-ball fifty versus England in the 2007 World Cup).

“For years I’ve been branded as a ‘Test’ cricketer, so it’s good for me to be up there creating history and breaking records. I feel happy and hopefully I can continue.It’s great to have records. I didn’t really realise I had got the record or got to fifty.I was just waiting for the ball to come out of the bowler’s hand and was striking it, so once I got there and everyone started clapping is when I realised I got to fifty. 

“When Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh) came to bat, he told me, ‘I was worried for a bit that you were going to break my 11-ball fifty record!’ [Yuvraj had hit a half-century off 12 balls against England in the World T20 2007, which is the international record]” Rahul was quoted as saying by Wisden India.

Rahul revealed that his plan when he stepped onto the pitch to chase the target set by DD was to maximise runs against the new ball, since it would have been easier to hit. The older the ball got, the harder it would have been to score runs, claimed Rahul.

“I was just in that zone and every batsman wants to be in that zone. I didn’t want to over-think, I just reacted to what the bowler bowled and was hitting it sweetly. I wanted to play a couple of balls in, but the first ball (Trent) Boult bowled he tried to swing it in but there was no swing. So I knew the ball is going to come straight. 

“And I just wanted to take him on straight away because I knew that once the ball gets older, it gets harder for the batsmen down the order. So that was my plan, to make sure the new ball goes for a lot of runs, to strike hard early,” Rahul said.