“The most important part at the death is, how clear can you be on top of your mark” - Harshal Patel

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) pacer Harshal Patel reckons that having clarity is the most important ingredient for a bowler to do well in the death overs in T20 cricket.

Harshal has been RCB’s designated death-overs bowler in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in recent seasons. After picking up 32 and 19 wickets, respectively, in the 2021 and 2022 editions, he has claimed 13 wickets in 12 matches in IPL 2023 so far.

On Thursday, May 18, he registered figures of 1/37 as Bangalore went on to beat SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets in match number 65 of IPL 2023 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.

In a post-match press conference, the 32-year-old shared his thoughts on the challenges of bowling at the death. Explaining his philosophy, Harshal commented:

“I have done it for almost three years now for RCB and the Indian team as well. I have gotten used to just having clear thinking at the death. For me, the most important part at the death is, how clear can you be on top of your mark and not worry about what the batter’s trying to do.

“My only focus is what delivery I am going to execute and what fields I need to set for that. If you are focusing on those things, then the pressure part becomes inconsequential.”

Harshal bowled the 16th over of the innings against SRH and conceded only eight runs. He returned for the penultimate in which he was hammered for 15 runs but also got the big wicket of centurion Heinrich Klaasen (104 off 51).

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“We were pretty confident at the halfway mark” - Harshal Patel

Despite Klaasen’s superb knock, RCB did well to restrict SRH to 186/5. Harshal described the total as a par score, adding that the team was confident of chasing down the total.

The pacer said:

“We were pretty confident at the halfway mark, the way we finished. Even after Klaasen’s brilliant knock, we still pulled them back. It was a par score on this surface. The kind of batting power we have, all the way till number seven, we were quite confident that it we start well in the powerplay and play to our strengths, we can chase down this total.

“At the same time, keeping conditions in mind, the wicket was a little on the slower side. All those considerations were in our head. But, we were confident of the chase.”

Asked if he sees any areas of improvement for RCB heading into their final league match, Harshal asserted:

“There are always areas for improvement. But in the last couple of games, we have played as close to our potential as we could. We would obviously have a review meeting and look at the points that we need to correct. Off the top of my head, I don’t see any issues at the moment that need to be corrected.”

RCB will take on Gujarat Titans (GT) in their last league match of IPL 2023 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday, May 21.