MS Dhoni praise brings solace to Siddarth Kaul

04/27/2017

Sunrisers Hyderabad's Siddarth Kaul has revealed that MS Dhoni's praise after SRH's last ball loss to RPS came as a consolation to the pacer. The 26-year-old said that Dhoni had a small chat with the 26-year-old after the defeat praising him for his efforts in the last over.

Having scored 19 runs off a Bhuvneshwar Kumar over, Dhoni would have looked up to see Warner hand the ball to Kaul, in the hopes of defending 11 runs off the last over. On the very first ball, Rashid Khan dropped Manoj Tiwary at deep midwicket to hand the game to RPS. Kaul still ensured that the game went to the very last ball, but Dhoni's hard hit past the long off boundary handed Pune the two points. But the dejected Kaul got a lift from the same man who had brought him defeat.

“Acha ball karraha hai tu. Pace bhibhaddgaya hai teraauryorkersbhi ache jaarahehain. Aise hee sharp ball rakh. (You have been bowling well. The pace has increased and your yorkers are also accurate. Keep bowling sharply like this),” Kaul remembered Dhoni's words after the game, reported HT.

“It is very challenging to bowl at Mahi bhai when he is in blazing form. I tried different variations and changed the field placements, but he just went after the bowlers and snatched the match from us,” the 26-year-old said praising the former Pune captain.

After not getting a single minute on the field in the initial games of the season, Kaul was finally picked in the Playing XI against Kings XI Punjab, where he gave away just five runs in the last over defending 11 runs. His next challenge came against Delhi Daredevils where he was asked to defend 24 off the last over. He conceded a six off the very first ball but over the rest of the over gave away just two runs.

The 26-year-old has been picked in the team, in recent weeks, over the likes of Ashish Nehra and Mustafizur Rahman. But Kaul said that the reason behind his selection was that David Warner trusted him after playing alongside him in Delhi as well.

“Warner knows me since we played together for Delhi Daredevils. Yuvi paaji has seen me bowl for Punjab in the Ranji Trophy in the last three-four years. So, he has best idea about my capabilities. In fact, he has been pushing me to go out there and bowl to my strength," Kaul added.

“There are far more established bowlers in the team, still they have shown faith in me by giving the last over, that too in a T20 format.”