Gros Islet [St Lucia], June 25 (ANI): India pacer Arshdeep Singh showered praise on his teammate Kuldeep Yadav and called him a champion spinner after the Men in Blue clinched a 24-run win over Australia in the Super Eights match of the T20 World Cup 2024.
Kuldeep Yadav picked up two wickets and gave away 24 runs in his four-over spell at an economy rate of 6.00. While Arshdeep Singh took three wickets and gave away 37 runs in his four-over spell at an economy rate of 9.20.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Arshdeep said that Kuldeep always delivers when plays for the Men in Blue. He added that India’s China man spinner is an important player for the team.
“Kuldeep is a champion spinner. Whenever he gets a chance, he delivers and he’s always been in the wickets and today as well he was bowling from the tough end and even against the wind, he managed to bowl at around 6 an over and took crucial wickets. So, he is a really important player in our team and we are looking forward to take all from him and we hope he takes a lot of wickets,” Arshdeep said.
He further added their motto as a team is to adapt to the conditions in the stadium. He also pointed out that the Men in Blue got ‘good support’ from the wind when they were bowling in the second inning.
“As a player, as a team, our motto is to adapt to the conditions. When we were bowling from this end, we were getting good support from the wind and the ball was swinging. But when you are bowling from the other end you have to run against the wind and you have to see because batsmen were trying to hit shots from that side and the sixes were travelling from that side – so what is your defensive option there and how you should not bring the wind in play and how you should be defensive from that side and attack from this side,” he added.
Recapping the match, Australia won the toss and decided to bowl against India.
Rohit Sharma (32 runs from 41 balls, 7 fours and 8 sixes) played a stupendous knock at a strike rate of 224.39. Rohit’s captain’s knock helped India to put 205/5 on the scoreboard in the first inning. Suryakumar Yadav (31 runs from 16 balls, 3 fours and 2 sixes) and Hardik Pandya (27* runs from 17 balls, 1 four and 2 sixes) played a supporting role and gave a solid target.
Mitchell Starc and Marcus Stoinis led the Aussie bowling attack after both of them picked up two wickets each in their respective spells.
During the run chase, Travis Head (76 runs from 43 balls, 9 fours and 4 sixes) played a dangerous knock but Jasprit Bumrah removed the Aussie opener in the 17th. Mitchell Marsh (37 runs from 28 balls, 3 fours and 2 sixes) also tried his best to chase the 206-run target but fell short in front of the Indian bowling attack.
Arshdeep Singh led the Indian bowling attack after he picked up three wickets in his four-over spell and helped India to win the match by 24 runs.
India skipper Rohit Sharma was named the Player of the Match after his stupendous knock in the first inning. (ANI)
