Rajasthan Royals Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara showered praise on Kuldeep Sen after the debutant made an impressive start to his IPL career against Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday.
Sen got the crucial wicket of Deepak Hooda and bowled consistently over 140 km/h in his first match.
However, more importantly, the 25-year old from Madhya Pradesh defended 15 runs off the final over against dangerous Marcus Stoinis. The Australian was going all guns blazing as he took 19 runs off the penultimate over bowled by Prasidh Krishna.
However, Kuldeep Sen bowled three dot balls at Stoinis, which meant a four and six on the last two balls wasn’t enough for LSG to get over the line as RR won by three runs and also went to the top of the points table.
Sangakkara was impressed with the way Kuldeep kept his nerve against Marcus Stoinis who was looking in great touch.
“I had no conversation with Kuldeep before the last over,” said Kumar Sangakkara, RR’s director of cricket, after the game on Sunday (April 10). “It was Sanju, Jos and the other players around him that supported him. We had pretty simple plans in terms of bowling at the death. I just want to say how impressed everyone, especially I am with how Kuldeep Sen handled his first game; how he bowled, how he thinks… He bowled the hardest over under pressure and did an excellent job for us.”
Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin decided to retire out after scoring 28 runs off 23 balls so that Riyan Parag can add the finishing touches. However, the Sri Lanka legend admitted that he should have sent Parag ahead of Rassie van der Dussen in the batting order.
“It was the right time to do that,” said Sangakkara of Ashwin’s decision. “Ashwin himself was asking from the field as well and we had discussed just before that as to what we would do. As the coach I got one call wrong not sending Riyan Parag ahead of Rassie van der Dussen and holding Rassie back so we couldn’t get the full benefit of Riyan, but how Ashwin handled that situation, walking in under pressure, he batted, supported the team and then finally sacrificed himself in terms of retiring himself out and then backed it up with a magnificent bowling effort. And of course Boult. Yuzi Chahal, Prasidh Krishna and Kuldeep Sen all of these bowlers were outstanding under pressure with the dew.”
RR came up with a collective effort as Shimron Hetmyer scored a fine knock of 59 runs to help his team post 165 runs on the board. RR will next take on Gujarat Titans at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai on Thursday.
