“The rhythm felt good before the IPL,” Arshdeep told the broadcasters after Punjab Kings beat Mumbai in a tight win, and he finished with 4 for 29. “I changed my run-up a bit, and it helped with my no-ball problem,”
And what of the pressure, asked Danny Morrison. “I guess Danny you should come next to me and feel the heart beat; it’s not even 120.”
“I don’t think personally I should be getting the Man of the Match [award], [after] the way the boys closed out the game,” Curran said. “Arshdeep and Nathan were incredible. The spinners bowled really well.”
Curran said that despite the absence of regular captain Shikhar Dhawan, the depth that Kings have in their line-up – with Jitesh Sharma and Shahrukh Khan slotted at Nos. 7 and 8 respectively against Mumbai – allowed him to bat freely and help his side recover from being 83 for 4 in the tenth over. Curran and Harpreet Bhatia added 92 in eight overs, after which Jitesh cracked 25 from only seven balls – including four sixes.
“The time when I went in to bat, I knew I had to give myself a bit of a chance,” Curran said. “Maybe [in] the previous games I have batted, I looked to go [big] a little earlier [than required]. I kind of reflected on that. We’ve got a really long batting line-up. Jitesh just came and went bang, bang, bang! We know we’ve got that in the sheds. Also without having Shikhar… we just have to take that responsibility.”
“We’ve played six games now; we’ve won three and lost three. So even stevens at the moment,” he said. “[There is] still a lot of time left in the tournament; we cannot really look down and start worrying too much about things. It’s about staying in the game and the competition, and keep doing the right things.
“Got to give credit to Arshdeep, how he bowled in the last couple of overs. It was not really our day, but we gave it a good fight.”