Georgetown (Guyana), his powerplay exploits set up India's huge victory over England and left-arm spinner Axar Patel said keeping things simple was the key as it helped him make life difficult for the rival batters "without doing anything extraordinary."
Coming to bowl in the fourth over, Axar (3/23) removed England captain Jos Buttler on his first delivery before dismissing Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali in consecutive overs to derail England's chase, who eventually folded for 103 chasing 172 in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup here on Thursday.
"Obviously in the powerplay it's difficult (to bowl), but when you know you're getting help from the wicket, without thinking too much, without doing anything extraordinary, I thought the simpler I kept it, the easier it would be for me." , Axar said during the post-match press conference.
"We talked in the locker room that it's not an easy field (to hit), and I knew the hitters would charge at me. It wasn't going to be easy to knock me down and they couldn't either." I didn't hit with the back foot because the ball didn't come with the bat.
"So my plan was to make it difficult for them, force them to think about playing other shots, and that's what happened on the first ball. So that was the plan."
Axar sent his first ball from around the wicket and Buttler, looking for the reverse sweep, ended up bowling it for wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant to do the rest.
"I hadn't really planned to get a wicket on the first ball. My mentality was to put the ball in the right areas. Obviously, when you play knockouts, you want to start and finish well with the first and last balls." said Axar, voted Man of the Match.
"I think it was difficult to hit big shots, sweep and reverse sweep because some balls stayed low on this wicket, so you can't hit it as easily."
India were 171 for 7 after being asked to tee off and Axar said he was confident of defending the total.
"I think 170 was a par score, we could defend it. Rohit bhai said after finishing batting that it was very difficult to hit big shots because the occasional ball would spin, stay low and also skid.
"By the time we got to 170, we knew we had scored 10 to 15 extra runs, which we could have defended."
Batting at number eight, Axar also hit a six during his 10-run cameo and said it gave him an idea about the nature of the surface as the pacers bowled slower balls in the death overs.
"Obviously, from that (hitting) I got an idea of what I could do and what I couldn't do. When I went to bat, everyone was throwing slower, the ball wasn't coming at the speed I wanted, so I couldn't." Not connecting correctly, so giving them rhythm would have made it easier for them to hit.
"It's also about pressure. When you're chasing and you know the wicket is helping the bowlers, like openers or anyone in the top four, they think about capitalizing on the powerplay as much as possible, but it wasn't that exercise. "
Coming to bowl in the fourth over, Axar (3/23) removed England captain Jos Buttler on his first delivery before dismissing Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali in consecutive overs to derail England's chase, who eventually folded for 103 chasing 172 in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup here on Thursday.
"Obviously in the powerplay it's difficult (to bowl), but when you know you're getting help from the wicket, without thinking too much, without doing anything extraordinary, I thought the simpler I kept it, the easier it would be for me." , Axar said during the post-match press conference.
"We talked in the locker room that it's not an easy field (to hit), and I knew the hitters would charge at me. It wasn't going to be easy to knock me down and they couldn't either." I didn't hit with the back foot because the ball didn't come with the bat.
"So my plan was to make it difficult for them, force them to think about playing other shots, and that's what happened on the first ball. So that was the plan."
Axar sent his first ball from around the wicket and Buttler, looking for the reverse sweep, ended up bowling it for wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant to do the rest.
"I hadn't really planned to get a wicket on the first ball. My mentality was to put the ball in the right areas. Obviously, when you play knockouts, you want to start and finish well with the first and last balls." said Axar, voted Man of the Match.
"I think it was difficult to hit big shots, sweep and reverse sweep because some balls stayed low on this wicket, so you can't hit it as easily."
India were 171 for 7 after being asked to tee off and Axar said he was confident of defending the total.
"I think 170 was a par score, we could defend it. Rohit bhai said after finishing batting that it was very difficult to hit big shots because the occasional ball would spin, stay low and also skid.
"By the time we got to 170, we knew we had scored 10 to 15 extra runs, which we could have defended."
Batting at number eight, Axar also hit a six during his 10-run cameo and said it gave him an idea about the nature of the surface as the pacers bowled slower balls in the death overs.
"Obviously, from that (hitting) I got an idea of what I could do and what I couldn't do. When I went to bat, everyone was throwing slower, the ball wasn't coming at the speed I wanted, so I couldn't." Not connecting correctly, so giving them rhythm would have made it easier for them to hit.
"It's also about pressure. When you're chasing and you know the wicket is helping the bowlers, like openers or anyone in the top four, they think about capitalizing on the powerplay as much as possible, but it wasn't that exercise. "
