'Wicket was Stopping and Keeping Low, Tried to Bowl in Right Areas,' Says Axar Patel After Match-winning Three-fer Against England in Semis

Team Indian punched their ticket to the summit clash of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 with a 68-run victory over holders England at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Thursday.

Indian put up a total of 171 runs thanks to Rohit Sharma’s fifty and Suryakumar Yadav’s 47-run knock, before the bowling unit bundled out England for 103 runs.

Axar Patel, who initiated the English collapse early in the powerplay with his three-fer was presented with the Player of the Match award. The Southpaw rattled the English and expressed that he was delighted with things going to plan.

“I have bowled in the powerplay in the past, so I had to bowl in the powerplay, that was the plan,” he began.

The southpaw spoke about the grippy nature of the wicket and explained that he attempted to pitch the ball in the right areas.

“The wicket was stopping and keeping low, so I tried to bowl in the right areas. The wicket was slow, so I tried to bowl slower in this match, and it worked for me,” he explained.

“It wouldn’t have worked had I bowled quicker, it would have been easier for their batters,” the spinner added.

He added that the inputs from the batters helped and that the feeling in the dressing room was positive after putting up a competitive score.

“Our batters told us that the wicket wasn’t easy, so 160 was a good total according to us,” he revealed.

Rohit and Suryakumar put up a crucial 73-run stand for the third wicket to steady the Indian innings and Axar lauded the efforts of the batters.

“That partnership between Rohit and SKY was magnificent, they scored the occasional boundaries and rotated the strike,” the southpaw said.

He concluded by stating that he would like to cherish the award and celebrate the win on the day before shifting focus to the final against South Africa on Saturday.

“Not thinking about Barbados at the moment, will celebrate this player of the match award first,” he signed off.

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