Win against KXIP was crucial: Chahal

Royal Challengers Bangalore leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal termed his team’s narrow one-run win over Kings XI Punjab as crucial, saying it has kept them in the hunt in this edition of the IPL.

“Obviously, in the table, we were on the seventh position (moved to 6th after the win). This win was very crucial for us, we got two points, we are still in the fray (to make the playoffs),” said Chahal at the post match press conference after his team snatched a nerve-wracking win here last night.

Asked what was the thinking behind bringing Jordan to bowl the final over, Chahal revealed, “Chris Jordan is a death bowler, even when he bowls for England. (After discussion among team members before last over), he was told to bowl a slower one, a little bit shorter, because leg side boundary is very big and very difficult to hit. On this wicket, batsman always wants pace and Virat (Kohli) bhai told Chris to bowl slower ones on the leg but a little bit shorter.” The 25-year-old said the score of 175 was a good total on the Mohali wicket.

“On this wicket, 170-175 is a very good total. Even before the match, we planned 160-165 on this wicket,” Chahal, who returned with figures of 4-0-30-1, said. Meanwhile, Kings XI Pinjab’s Marcus Stoinis rued his team’s one-run defeat, saying “this was an opportunity we missed”. Needing four off the last delivery, Stoinis (34, 22 balls) could take only two. On whether they were expecting Jordan to bowl the final over, as Varun Aaron also had one over left, Stoinis said, “In our calculations, we knew it was one of those two guys bowling that over. Doesn’t really take you by surprise, you just go with what happens. But yeah, you have plans for each one and you have sort of an idea what they are going to try and bowl”.