Navdeep Saini opens up on India's loss in the Auckland ODI

It has been less than nine months in the international cricket and this young lad has already made himself a prominent name among Indian bowling squad. Navdeep Saini is an upcoming talent in the current bowling line-up and probably the fastest one, India has on this tour. He walked in to the international cricket world after debuting against West Indies in August 2019 in T20s and in the ODIs in December 2019.

He has already established himself as a reliable bowler who has often come to the team's rescue in crunch situations but the real surprise came when he showed his extraordinary skills with the bat too. During the 2nd ODI against New Zealand in Auckland, he hammered 45 runs off 48 balls. Saini came on the pitch when Indian side was struck in a tight spot at 153/7 in 32nd over, in the chase of 274. It was after his 76-run partnership with Jadeja that gave enormous hopes to the players and the fans of a come from behind victory. In 42nd over, he hit experienced Colin de Grandhomme for 3 consecutive fours and in next over slammed Kyle Jamieson for a huge six which even left his skipper, Virat Kohli in awe as he lauded the tailender with applause.

Saini in a conference after the match opened up -

"Yes we felt the wicket was flat and if we can stay till the end, the match could go close. When I went out to bat, we needed a lot of runs. Our plan was to take the match deep and then we will see at the end, maybe there would be a chance to win. We are playing to win only, so we wanted to take the game deep. When batting with him (Jadeja), he told me that if you get a boundary ball, hit it. Otherwise take singles or doubles, try to keep patience and we can take the game to the end."

He spoke of gradually gaining confidence during the run chase,

"As soon as I hit the first boundary, I was in shock, wow the ball is coming really well off the bat." However, he lamented that Ravindra Jadeja and him couldn't get India over the line and tie the series..

"Yes I will regret it when I go back and see the video. If I hadn't got out, maybe the result could have been different. Will regret that I took it so close and maybe could have gotten closer."

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