IPL 2018: Mayank Agarwal heaps praise on KL Rahul after Kings XI Punjab blank Delhi Daredevils

Even though Mayank Agarwal couldn’t do much with the bat, scoring just seven off five balls, he had the best seat in the house to watch KL Rahul’s knock wherein the batsman dismantled the Delhi Daredevils bowling. (KXIP v DD report) (Highlights) (Full scores)

As Rahul dug into the Delhi Daredevils bowlers, 27-year-old Agarwal did the sensible thing by rotating the strike and giving Rahul the strike as much as possible.

After the match Agarwal heaped praise on Rahul and said his knock eased up the chase for Kings XI Punjab.

“The pitch was a bit slow and turning a bit for both the side. To be honest the start we got eased up a lot of things. We knew DD were under the pump and chasing the game,” he said.

With Agarwal happy to stay at non-strikers end, Rahul took just 14 balls to reach fifty setting up a six-wicket win for the Kings XI Punjab.

READ | IPL 2018: KL Rahul’s record half-century rocks Delhi Daredevils

Aggarwal was awestruck at the strokes and said, “It was tremendous the way he was batting and striking the ball. I think, he was in the zone. It was amazing to see such good hitting and cricketing strokes from the other end.”

Punjab were also well served by Karun Nair who anchored the chase after fall of Rahul hitting a 32-ball 50. With no pressure for quick runs, David Miller (24no) amd Marcus Stoinis (22no) completed the six-wicket win with seven balls to spare. Agarwal said the plan was to keep watching the ball and look to play good cricketing strokes.

“It was a very important knock by Karun. He anchored the innings and chances he took were calculative. The plan is to be positive and go out with aggressive mindset and take whatever comes from there,” he added.