In the fourth T20I match against Australia, Team India`s star all-rounder Axar Patel delivered a stunning show, both with bat and ball at the Heritage Bank Stadium in Queensland.
With the bat, the left-hander scored an unbeaten 21 runs off just 11 balls. His knock was laced with a boundary and a maximum. Later, having bowled four overs, he conceded 20 runs and grabbed two wickets.
Reflecting on his batting performance, Axar said that he received a message from the dressing room to take the game deep till the last over.
“Obviously I knew it was tough because wickets were falling back to back. The message that I got from the dressing room was to take it to the last over because there weren`t any batsmen after me,” Axar said in a video interview with teammate and fellow all-rounder Shivam Dube, posted by the `bcci.tv`.
Further speaking, he also said during the match, the all-rounder thought that if he holds his shape right, then he could clear the big boundaries at the side.
“So I thought I would take a chance in the last over. The side boundaries were big but I thought if I could hold my shape and watch the ball, I could clear them,” he said.
“I have felt in the past that if I think about the size of the boundary and don`t hit towards those sides, they become predetermined shots and because of that we make mistakes. I learnt from past mistakes and played my shots here,” added the 31-year-old cricketer.
When asked about his bowling performance, the Gujarat-born cricketer said that he was not getting much help from the wicket, and the ball kept skidding throughout the match.
“As a spinner, I felt like, it was important for me to contain. I was looking at that and bowling wicket to wicket because I was not getting much spin but I was getting a little bit of bounce because of the dew. The ball was skidding a lot,” he told Dube.
The burly all-rounder asked Axar about the LBW dismissal of Matthew Short, which was the result of an accurate review taken by him in consultation with Jitesh Sharma.
“I`m never ready to take a review. But when the ball hit (his pads) this time, I think it stayed low. And the kind of action that I have, I bowl a little wide off the crease. So I always feel that the ball will hit outside the wicket or go from an angle,” he explained.
“But in this I knew that the ball was hitting and (although) it could have been a little outside the off stump, we could take a chance on umpire`s call and when I spoke to Jitu, he said `Axar it`s inside, I mean in the middle`. So I said `yes we can take a chance`, added the spinner.
The fifth T20I match between India and Australia is scheduled to be played on November 8 at the Gabba.
(With PTI Inputs)