Kolkata: Himachal Pradesh staged a spirited fightback in their Group D clash against Bengal at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata and managed to pull off a draw. One of the main reasons behind this was the performance of all-rounder Rishi Dhawan. Coming into bat in a crucial situation, the right-hander smashed a crucial half-century and then came back with the ball to rattle the Bengal batting.
SportsCrunch caught up with the Himachal Pradesh all-rounder who was a confident man after his spirited show with both the willow and the cherry.
“Obviously it feels good if you have some runs in the kitty and some wickets too. I’m feeling confident now, our team is also doing very well and we will try to get some points in the next two games and enter the quarter-finals,” said Dhawan.
It was his four wickets in the last innings led Himachal Pradesh to believe that they can pull off a famous win and Dhawan felt that there was a chance of the same happening as the Bengal batters looked to chase down the total from the word go.
Said Dhawan, “Obviously if they were on their way in chasing down the target then we had a chance there but because of the light, they changed their game plan.”
When asked as to whether his team was happy with the result or not, the 27-year-old said, “Not really. We were positive that we could have chased down the first innings total of 420 but it happens. They bowled well and we also played some poor shots.”
There were many from the visiting side who played their part in this famous draw and Rishi Dhawan was one of them. Having last played for India in their limited overs’ tour to Australia in early 2016, the all-rounder however wasn’t happy with the way he performed in the first innings.
When asked as to whether there are any thoughts of making a comeback to the national team, Dhawan said, “Not really. I should have batted well in the first innings but it happens sometimes. The game is to keep on improving and I’m trying to do that.”
On the other hand, Man-of-the-match Abhishek Raman, who played a solid knock of 176 runs in the first innings felt that Bengal’s ‘mini-collapse’ in the last innings happened because of the fact that they had gone for the kill, trying to chase down the total in 15-16 overs.
Raman, said, “Nothing went wrong. We just had to chase down the total in 15-16 overs. We tried our best but couldn’t do because we didn’t get off to a good start. We had to make 140 in 15 overs so we had to take our chances.”
However, the left-hander’s classy knock in the first innings helped Bengal pile up a huge total of 419 runs on the board, which turned out to be a crucial one for his team. Speaking on his innings, Raman said, “It was a good innings. The wicket was good and it was nice to bat on. If we had dismissed them a bit earlier, then we would have had a better chance. We had 32 overs left to chase down the total and the boys put up a good performance.”