'I Decide Whom To Back On The Given Day...' Nitish Rana On His Captaincy Style
Varun C and Nitish Rana [Image- IPLT20]
Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Nitish Rana was a happy man at the post-match presentation after his bowling-unit and his tactics helped the former champions defeat the SunRisers Hyderabad on Thursday.
Defending 172, KKR looked like staring down the barrel when Heinrich Klaasen was going great guns during a 70-run stand with Aiden Markram for the 5th wicket.
With the score reading 124/4 after 14 overs, Rana decided to bring back Shardul Thakur and Vaibhav Arora into the attack, and it proved to be a masterstroke as the former dismissed the dangerous Klaasen while the latter saw off the SRH captain to set the cat among the pigeons.
The rest was done by spinner Varun Chakravarthy, whom Rana held back to deliver the final over.
When asked about his decision to go with a spinner in the final over, Rana said he always backs his best performing spinner on the night to do the job for him.
"In the middle we bowled a few loose overs and took a gamble with Shardul and Vaibhav and they managed to get both set batters and that's how we made a comeback in this game. We had to get them out because if they bat till the end, then surely the game would have gone out of our reach. I had a doubt if I had to go with spinner/pacer and backed my spinner to do the job. I always see who is the best spinner on the game and that's how I decide whom to back on the given day."
Chakravarthy ended up conceding just 3 runs in the final over to hand a brilliant 5-run win for his team. He finished with figures of 1/20 in 4 overs, and was rightly adjudged the 'Player of the Match'.
 "Yash Mittal")
