IPL 2021 | No.3 is always a beautiful spot to play, states Srikar Bharat
Srikar Bharat says number 3 spot helps in building partnerships
|Royal Challengers Bangalore wicket-keeper batter Srikar Bharat has said that the number three is a beautiful spot to bat as it plays a huge role in building partnerships. His comments came in a post match press conference after Bangalore's win by seven wickets against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday.
After winning the toss, RCB skipper elected to field against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday in Dubai. Royals got off to a flyer as openers Evin Lewis (58) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (31) stitched an opening partnership of 77 runs in just eight overs. Yashasvi Jaiswal got out to Dan Christian before Evin Lewis was caught by Bharat off the bowling of debutant George Garton with the scorecard reading 100/2. This proved to be the turning point for the Royals as they lost seven wickets in just 49 runs as Purple cap holder Harshal Patel took three wickets. Â
In reply to Royals' 149/9, RCB had a great start as the openers, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal added 48 runs for the first wicket in just 5 overs before Padikkal was cleaned up by Mustafizur Rahman. Virat Kohli followed soon after because of a brilliant run out by Riyan Parag. Glenn Maxwell joined Bharat and stitched a match winning partnership of 69 runs for the third wicket to ensure there were no hiccups in the chase. Bharat scored 44 runs and Maxwell scored an unbeaten 50.
"No.3 is always a beautiful spot to play. Everyone always asks questions if you're not ready for it. We at RCB we've always focused on keeping the strike going and getting busy from ball one. It plays a huge role in building a partnership... we have AB and Maxi coming in after that and giving them the platform for a strong finish. My role is to get partnerships," said Bharat in the post-match conference.
"Me and Maxi were communicating in the centre and did what the team required at that point. If you play with AB, Maxwell and Virat bhai you tend to learn a lot of good things in terms of cricket and also how to handle yourself in and out of the sport. Me and Maxi were talking about what areas we could access, what are the boundary options, what are the twos and singles, which bowler has how many overs left, what are his lengths... we were only discussing those tactical things and it worked for us."
With this win, RCB has retained third position in the points table with 14 points and has moved one step closer to the playoffs spot. RCB will play their next game against Punjab Kings in Sharjah on Sunday, October 3.
