2nd T20I: I just backed myself with the yorkers, says Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Kolkata, Feb 18 (IANS) India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar said his plan in the slog overs of the second T20I was to back himself with the yorkers.

He added that despite the dew, he backed himself to ensure a narrow eight-run victory for his team.

With West Indies needing 29 off the last two overs, Kumar took out Nicholas Pooran and conceded just four singles in the penultimate 19th over to give Harshal Patel 23 runs to defend, which he did to seal the T20I series in India’s favour.

“I was just believing in myself, Rohit told me that if I can give just 9-10 runs it will be difficult for them, so I just backed myself with the yorkers. There was a bit of dew, but I still backed myself and it came out well,” said Kumar to broadcasters ‘Star Sports’ after the match.

Asked about the big hits coming from Rovman Powell’s bat in his unbeaten knock of 68, Kumar jokingly remarked, “He (Powell) was hitting it pretty hard, probably 200kmph!”

Talking about bowling with the dew in the equation, Kumar pointed out that it depends on how the pitch behaves. “It’s always tough to bowl yorkers with the dew. When we bowled the slower balls it wasn’t gripping and I changed my plan not to bowl slower balls, so it totally depends on the wicket. These (West Indies batters) are very powerful and if you bowl in their zone and it gets difficult.”

Kumar signed off by saying that he is feeling well fitness-wise. “Feels good and I don’t want to say anything about that.”

–IANS

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