Getting back to the game was tough: Nathan Coulter-Nile

Veteran Australian speedster Nathan Coulter-Nile had a fantastic start to his IPL this year. He returned with the Player of the Match award in the match against the Delhi Daredevils. Coulter-Nile played his first game for his new franchise Kolkata Knight Riders. He was drafted in the squad at the expense of an underperforming Trent Boult.

The Aussie pacer made a mark straightaway with figures of 3/22 to his name. It was his efforts that saw the opposition restricted to 168 in their 20 overs. As per the recent quotes in the ESPNcricinfo, Nathan Coulter-Nile noted that things were not easy as he was returning from an injury. He was happy with the fact that he had contributed to the team’s win and that is what matters in the end.

“Making a comeback from injury, I had to focus on my role. Getting back was tough; it was a long time out of the game. Playing T20 cricket, doing well and contributing to the win, all worth it in the end,” he quoted.

Later in the match, an 110 run stand between Yusuf Pathan and Manish Pandey saw the Knight Riders register a thrilling win. Both batsmen helped the side to recover from 21/3 to 131/4 in the run chase. Talking about the match, Yusuf Pathan noted that they got their plans perfectly right in the game. He cited that the plan was to hit a boundary or a six in every over and that worked well for them.

“We had a good game plan and it succeeded. We were trying to get a boundary or a six in every over regardless of who the bowler was and to keep rotating the strike. We were trying to put the bowlers and the captain under pressure so that they commit a mistake and so do the fielders,” Yusuf quoted.

Speaking further, he remarked that Delhi Daredevils had very good bowling line up and fielding placements. However, he and Pandey ensured that they backed themselves in tough conditions.

“Delhi has a good bowling line-up and Zaheer is captaining them really well. His field placement was also really good, but we had to hold ourselves back and stay calm. We discussed that we have to bat according to the way we want to and not to the field that they were placing,” Yusuf Pathan conceded.