Mahi Bhai’s wicket favourite, Fizz a good reader of wicket: Chetan Sakariya opens up on maiden IPL experience

Rajasthan Royals’ Chetan Sakariya was one of the finds of the 2021 Indian Premier League. The left-arm pacer from Saurashtra lit up the ground right from his first game. But to him, the wicket of Mahendra Singh Dhoni which he took in his third game of IPL. 

“Mahi [Dhoni] bhai’s wicket was my favourite. I was happily shocked. It felt unreal. If you see the video, you will know how shocked I was,” Sakariya told Sportstar. 

Talking about how he overcame the pressure of playing at such a big stage with the biggest names the game has to offer, the 22-year-old said, “Initially, I felt the pressure but later on, I handled that. I bowled a few good spells to some great batsmen.” 

Apart from Dhoni’s, the Bhavnagar born took the wickets of the likes of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Suresh Raina as well. Sakariya believes that he had more than a good IPL and did certainly better than he expected of himself. 

“I never thought I would bowl to them someday. That gave me a lot of confidence. I think I bowled better than I thought I would. I have to improve but I am happy with my performance,” he said. 

Taking seven wickets in this season, the son of an auto-rickshaw driver became the lynchpin of attack alongside Chris Morris and Mustafizur Rahman. Thanking the Bangladesh overseas bowler and England star  Jos Buttler for their support, Sakariya said, “Mustafizur is a good reader of the wicket. He will tell you when to bowl your slower delivery. He knows how to unsettle the rhythm of a batsman.”

“Buttler, though a batsman, told me a lot about bowling in the Powerplay. He would stand beside me when I bowled during the practice games. 

He told me to stick to the length and not worry about conceding a boundary. It’s just that there should not be a single loose delivery,” Sakariya added and went on to even thank his Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Unadkat for the support. 

The Covid-19 scare halted the IPL and ed to its eventual suspension was real and Skaraiya too felt it. Talking about it, he said, “We had just played a game against Sunrisers and after every match, the players usually catch up at the ground. We were hoping not to return positive since we had met a few players from their team.” Sunsrisers’ Wriddhiman Saha tested positive for the virus.