Josh Hazlewood has been the spark of the evening for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a spectacular bowling performance, which handed him the second player of the match award for the season.
Playing for the Royal Challengers in Bengaluru, many players, including Jacob Duffy, Tim David, Phil Salt, and Virat Kohli, have been picked as the POTM in the matches. Hazlewood has now picked his second POTM award for the season.
RCB have continued their peak form in the competition and have now managed to win six games out of their first eight matches in the tournament, with Rajat Patidar continuing to hold on to the winning streak as the skipper of the defending champions.
Josh Hazlewood won the POTM award for his amazing figures with the ball
Josh Hazlewood picked two back-to-back wickets on consecutive deliveries in his very first over with the ball. He first dismissed KL Rahul with a bouncer that hurried onto him, and Rahul ended up top-edging it.
The next one was a ball that was pitched wide outside the off-stump, and Sameer Rizvi did not move his foot while throwing his hands at it. He was on a hat-trick when Tristan Stubbs clipped him for a boundary.
Hazlewood's next wicket came against Nitish Rana, and he wrapped up the game with his fourth wicket, dismissing Abhishek Porel with a sublime yorker at the middle stump. Having bowled 3.3 overs, he finished with the figures of 4/12 and was awarded the player of the match.
Josh Hazlewood reveals how the conditions helped him enhance his bowling performance
"Yeah, I think, probably turning up here after 500-plus runs last game, probably weren't expecting what happened, but, yeah, it feels like Bhuvi and I have been pretty close to producing a really good powerplay. So yeah, I just followed his lead basically again and, yeah, what happened, happened, so it was a great result," said Josh Hazlewood.
Speaking of the wicket, he revealed that the wicket helped them a little bit at the start of the overs, as the ball moved a little bit sideways and was enought for the bowlers to work out with.
He added how the shorter length helped him target the wickets of players like KL Rahul and Nitish Rana, whom he surprised with some bouncers. He explained, "And then obviously the short ball was nice as well."
"So it was just about the accuracy of the short ball in particular. But I think, no matter where you pitched, it sort of ended up at the right height. It was one of those wickets. So, yeah, I think when that ball was nice and hard, it was quite tough to bat."
Hazlewood's honest take on Team strategy and Momentum in the game
Hazlewood revealed how he would have loved to bowl the fourth over on the row and then just go off the field; however, Rajat Patidar removed him from captaincy and introduced the spinners after the seamers Romario Shepherd and Rasikh Salam went for some runs.
"But no, I think the way we planned it out was nice. Our spinners got into the game, you know, dotted it up nicely. Suyash bowled beautifully again. KP, wily-old character. So, yeah, it feels like every box is getting ticked at the moment," he said.
"Yeah, I think we've just picked up from where we left off last year. I felt like, in particular in our away games, we summed up conditions nicely and nice and quickly, whether we batted or bowled first, and adapted our games accordingly."
"So we really went on a bit of a streak towards the back end of last year, and it feels like we're sort of hitting our stride now at the right time of the tournament, I think," Hazlewood summed up on the team's brilliant performance.
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