I wait for half chances for an extra wicket, says Manish Pandey

04/15/2018

BCCI

After helping Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Kolkata Knight Riders, Manish Pandey stated that half chances could be converted to an extra wicket which was very important in the context of the game. He has also emphasized the necessity of practice sessions ahead of a match which pays off during matches.

Saturday’s match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad saw some extraordinary exhibition of top-class fielding from the former. Specifically, Manish Pandey took two catches in the match, both of which were among the best in the tournament so far. He first dived to his right at backward point to latch on to a Nitish Rana shot despite a fumble, and then ran backwards to cover more than 30 meters from the same position to hold on to a skier from Andre Russell. Both catches apart, he made one exceptional save on the boundary line. All of which contributed to Kolkata being restricted to 138 for 8.

“I keep waiting for such chances to come to me in matches so that I take those half chances and create an extra wicket as a fielder and help the team. This is what we discuss in team meetings,” Pandey told Bhuvneshwar Kumar in an interaction for IPLT20.com. “The catch of Nitish at point came quite fast. Since he was a new batsman we were standing close to save single, and he hit it quite hard. I did not have much time after the fumble but it is a result of the effort we put in the practice.

“The catches that one has to take by running backwards are obviously a lot more difficult, but I was pumped up after the first catch. Russell’s catch was very important because he was in form and he had got runs in the last match (against CSK).Awareness comes from practice. We take so many boundary catches at practice. It is lucky when such things come off in matches,” he added. “I felt really nice to stop that six, but I also became a bit greedy and wanted to take that catch too. But overall we fielded well as a team and hope to continue to do as a team.”

While experts believe most of the decisions taken by Kolkata Knight Riders’ such as removing Sunil Narine from opening slot and asking Shubman Gill to bat at number 7 and giving Shivam Mavi only one over that too when the match was almost finished was strange and as a result Sunrisers got better of them in yesterday’s match.

However, KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik defending all the decisions explained, “It’s bit of a mix and match. We have decided at the start of the season that we will not be sending Sunil Narine opening throughout. At times you want to use him as a floater. As a team we understand that Gill is a top order batsman, but you have to understand the dynamics as well. We have Robin there, Nitish there, I am there. We need to send him in a middle-order role, where he doesn’t need to go and build an innings. He can just go, be free and express himself. That was the logic.”

Replying on, why he gave Shivam Mavi just one over, the KKR skipper justified, “I was looking at Mavi, but at that stage the spinners were bowling so well, I could see that the spinners were a better wicket-taking option than the fast bowlers. It was coming on to the bat much faster, but for the spinners it was holding up and there was a chance for a wicket. I was trying to utilise that. In these sort of small games, you need to see what is the best attacking option. You need to keep picking up wickets and I thought spinners were the best option to pick up wickets.”

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