IPL 2021: Virat Kohli Praises Mohammed Siraj For Brilliant Over Against Andre Russell, Says ‘He’s A Different Bowler After Australia Tour’

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli lauded Mohammed Siraj for his brilliant over against Kolkata Knight Riders’ Andre Russell. While chasing a target of 205 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders needed 59 off the final three overs. Russell had smashed Yuzvendra Chahal for 20 runs in the 17th over and again hit two sixes off Kyle Jamieson’s 18 over to take it down to 44 off 12 balls.

However, Mohammed Siraj bowled an incredible over against Andre Russell, giving just 1 run in the penultimate over. Siraj kept the ball off-wide and also bowled yorkers to deny Russell any chance of hitting a four or six.

Russell could not score any runs in the first 5 balls, after failing to clear the boundaries and also rejected to take a run. With giving just one run, Siraj took the victory far away from Kolkata Knight Riders as they needed 43 runs off the final over.

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Mohammed Siraj Is A Different Bowler After Australia Tour: Virat Kohli

During the post-match press conference, RCB skipper Virat Kohli praised Siraj for his brilliant over against Andre Russell.

“Siraj’s over to Russell [was good] – he has had some history against Russell. He’s a different bowler after the Australia tour and he shut the game out. Harshal has so much clarity in the end and I think Jamieson also bowled well. That’s the reason why we have three out of three,” Virat Kohli said.

Kohli also said that Mohammed Siraj’s execution in his penultimate over was spot-on.

“To be fair, on a pitch like Chennai, you probably have a bit more space to make an error on the longer boundary. It has to be on the offside and not the on-side. Siraj did miss on the full-toss, but he has two men on the boundary.

“The execution was spot-on. We played in Wankhede, Kolkata and Ahmedabad where the margin of error keeps getting smaller,” Virat Kohli further said.

Mohammed Siraj remained wicket-less in the match but showed a great economy with 17 runs in his 3 overs. Kyle Jamieson took 3 wickets, while Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal took 2 wickets each to restrict Kolkata Knight Riders to 166-8 in the 2nd innings.

Royal Challengers Bangalore won the match by 38 runs and bagged their 3^rd straight victory in IPL 2021. The Virat Kohli-led side will lock horns with Rajasthan Royals in their next game at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.