Wouldn't have worked had I bowled quicker – Axar Patel on his Player of the Match performance

It was an electric display from Team India as they surged past England in a substantial display of class and prowess, punching their ticket to the grand finale of the T20 World Cup 2024 against South Africa. Axar Patel played an instrumental role, powering Team India to a steady start before Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah cleaned things up at the lower end.

Axar Patel secured the Player of the Match award for his exceptional bowling figures of 3/23 while also chiming in with a late cameo with the bat where he scored 10 off six towards the end, a knock that helped India to eventually cross the hallowed 170-run mark.

Talking at the post-match conference, Axar Patel shed light on what the conditions were and how the Indian bowlers planned to put the fettle of the surface to good use.

Axar said, “I have bowled in the powerplay in the past, so I had to bowl in the powerplay, that was the plan. The wicket was stopping and keeping low, so tried to bowl in the right areas. The wicket was slow, so I tried to bowl slower in this match, it worked for me. Wouldn't have worked had I bowled quicker, would have been easier for their batters.”

He concluded by saying, “Our batters told us that the wicket wasn't easy, so 160 was a good total according to us. That partnership (between Rohit and SKY) was magnificent, they scored the occasional boundaries and rotated the strike. Not thinking about Barbados at the moment, will celebrate this player of the match award first.”