My sixth time being on a hat-trick and finally got one, so pretty happy: Harshal Patel

What a fantastic season it is turning out to be for Harshal Patel. Everything he touches turns to gold. On Sunday evening, it was one such performance that helped the Royal Challengers Bangalore to register a 54-run victory against the defending champions Mumbai Indians.

Harshal Patel became the third RCB bowler to bag an IPL hat-trick after Praveen Kumar (2010) and Samuel Badree (2017). The 30-year-old’s impressive spell of 4/17 against MI extended his IPL 2021 season’s overall wicket tally to 23, cementing his top spot in the purple cap race.

During the post-match presentation, the RCB pacer spoke about his hat-trick, bowling variations and how his fellow teammates put the opposition middle-order under pressure.

“I was thinking if the batters can't pick my slower balls then the bowlers also will find it difficult to spot (referring to Chahar's wicket that got him the hat-trick). I just bet on that,” Harshal Patel said during the post-match presentation.

On his first-ever IPL hat-trick

“This is my sixth time being on a hat-trick and finally got one, so pretty happy. He (Pollard) is somebody who can do damage if you bowl in his areas. We wanted to take him wide and then once you drag him wide you have the option to bluff him. That came off really well,” he added.

On RCB’s bowling unit

“The way Siraj started, he's someone who sets the tempo for us and the way Maxi and Chahal bowled in the middle overs was absolutely brilliant. They were under pressure at the death and we executed really well,” he signed off.