Image Credit- BCCI
It’s not always the case that you feel you are 15–20
runs above par when you score 160 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Still, Arshdeep
Singh made such statement following India’s 6 run victory against Australia in
the fifth and final Twenty20 International to win the series 4-1.
Following submission, India faltered to 160 for 8.
Australia’s reply was 144 for 7, requiring 17 runs from 12 balls with Matthew
Wade at the middle, after 18 overs. In the 19th over, Mukesh Kumar conceded
just seven runs, meaning that 10 balls from six were needed.
After giving up 37 runs in his first three overs,
Arshdeep bowled a fantastic last stanza. India’s victory was secured when he
bowled two dots, the first of which ought to have been a wide due to Wade’s
height. Wade holed out to long-on on the third over. At this location, a side
last successfully defended 160 runs or less in a Twenty20 match in 2017.
“I guess for the big part of the game, for almost
the first 19 overs, I was thinking that I gave away too many runs and would be
the culprit of the game,” Arshdeep said on the official broadcast.
“But god gave me another chance and I believed in myself. Thanks to god
that I defended it and thanks to the staff as well who believed in me.”
When asked what his thought process was for the final
over, he said: “To be honest, nothing was going through my mind. Surya
[Suryakumar Yadav] bhai told me that whatever happens, happens. The credit goes
to our batsmen as well. They gave us a really good total here on a tricky
wicket and we had a cushion of an extra 15 to 20 runs.”
Shreyas Iyer, whose 37-ball 53 had steered India to
what they eventually got, agreed with Arshdeep’s assessment.
“To be honest, my mindset was to go boom-boom
from ball one,” Iyer said. “But when I saw three wickets falling
down, my mind started calculating what would be the best total on this wicket.
Then I had a few batsmen contributing as well. It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat
on, but if you have a total in mind, you try to play accordingly and today was
the right example of how we did it as a team.