IPL 2018: I had nothing to lose, says KKR's Nitish Rana

Nitish Rana was the star of Kolkata Knight Riders’ season opener against RCB. Picking up two huge wickets of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli in the same over, the youngster turned things around for KKR in his first game for the franchise. RCB posted a decent target of 176 on board with Mandeep Singh short cameo towards the end but KKR managed to chase it down with four wickets remaining.

While things were going just fine for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rana dismissed both the set batsmen back to back. Just when ABD was in full flow, Dinesh Karthik brought in Rana to bowl the fifteenth over, and to everyone’s surprise, Rana strikes in the second ball of the over. The very next ball, Rana got Kohli bowled after scoring a 31 of 33 balls.

KKR started off pretty well with Sunil Narine’s 19-ball fifty. He smacked five massive sixes and four boundaries in the nineteen balls he faced. Sunil Narine’s quickfire fifty powered KKR to an easy win. Nitish Rana and Dinesh Karthik managed to thirties which steadied the chase for the home team. However, if Rana didn’t pick those two crucial wickets, things would have been a lot different.

Nitish Rana – The bowler:

“I had nothing to lose, but everything to gain. I saw the ball was gripping well if I bowled in right areas I might get wickets. I backed myself and luckily I got the two big wickets. It was very important to get those batsmen out at that stage. I bowl at domestic level for Delhi. I bowled well in the practice matches here and did well and then Dinesh bhai told me to get ready, you could bowl one or two overs in any match. Luckily got a chance and proved myself,” Rana replied when asked about his bowling.

“My job is to score runs. I don’t see that as pressure. It’s good that people are expecting more from me having done well last season. I love to bat under pressure, you are aware of the situations around you,” the young lad said at the press conference.

Coming at number 4, Nitish Rana scored 34 runs off 25 balls before getting out to Washington Sundar. Nitish Rana’s all-round performance helped KKR start off their season with a comfortable win. Following his success with the ball, skipper Dinesh might use Rana for an over or two to provide crucial breakthroughs in the coming matches as well.

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