Kohli could have smashed me for a six: Ben Stokes

English all-rounder Ben Stokes made all the headlines when he turned out to be the most expensive buy at the IPL auctions this year. Coming into the tournament, he put forth some spirited performances too. The best of the lot was against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Albeit he failed with the bat in the match, he did very well with the ball. Stokes returned with figures of 3/18 in his 4 overs. He was awarded the Man of the Match for his performance.

In the match, he got rid of the big fish early on in the innings. He dismissed Virat Kohli to give an early jolt to RCB. Talking about the dismissal, Ben Stokes noted that he was lucky to get the wicket. On another day, Kohli could have hit him for six on the same ball. Kohli had mistimed a pull and was caught in the deep.

“To be honest, I had a second guess that I’m going to try and bowl him to the end of the mark and T20 is a tough game. On one of the days he could’ve just flown that delivery out for a six, but luck was on our side today and we managed to get the hunt,” quoted Ben Stokes as per the quotes in Cricbuzz.

The next wicket that he got was of the former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson. He remarked that the team had plans for bowling to Watson. Sticking to those plans is what helped him succeed against Watson.

“We had a plan in terms of what we wanted to bowl and we found out that the balls that were bowled into the wicket, pace off, were the hardest ones to hit. We managed him after that four over cover and I stuck to what we knew is going to work best for us and it paid off in the end,” said Stokes about Shane Watson.

Speaking further about the match, Stokes singled out Dan Christian as a very good bowler for them on the day. Christian returned with figures of 0/26 in his 4 overs. The English all-rounder cited that it was Dan who kept things tight at one end and had choked up the opposition. His clinical spell created opportunities for wickets at the other end.

“Dan managed to pull us back first. The RCB batsmen never seemed to get hold of him in terms of what he was doing with the ball, varying his lengths and his pace very well, and I don’t think the boys managed to pick him up well. To concede 26 runs in his four overs is a brilliant effort. Although he went wicketless, he contributed to the fall of wickets on the other end,” he quoted.’

Lastly, Ben Stokes had a few words of praise for the young pacers Shardul Thakur and Jaydev Unadkat as well. Both Thakur and Unadkat accounted for 5 wickets in the match. They provided the much-needed breakthroughs at the regular intervals.

“We’ve got so much talent coming in through here. I’m meeting these guys for the first time and have been around them for the past two weeks or so. It is great to see them guys putting in all the hard work in the nets and now come out and perform when given an opportunity. Tonight they got tested throughout with different types of situations and bowled pretty well in those circumstances,” the English cricketer conceded about the Indian pacers of RPS camp.