Shardul Thakur reveals Rohit Sharma's advice that helped him win the 4th T20I for India
Indian pacer Shardul Thakur has revealed a piece of brief but significant advice from vice-captain Rohit Sharma that helped him upend his and Team India's fortunes in the 4th T20I against England.
On Friday, Shardul Thakur bowled the 17th over of the innings. At that stage, England were 140-4 and Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow were belting the dew-swamped ball all around the park.
The 29-year-old Mumbaikar delivered and brought his team back with 2 consecutive wickets of Stokes and skipper Eoin Morgan. Shardul Thakur then bowled the most difficult over of the day - the 20th - and defended 23 runs against a rampant Jofra Archer to seal a memorable win for his team.
Throughout the spell, regular skipper Virat Kohli was out in the pavilion attending a foot niggle. Rohit Sharma filled in for him and as Shardul Thakur narrates, gave his bowlers some crucial pointers about the ground dimensions and simply asked them to back themselves.
"Rohit said just back your instincts, think, take your time. He mentioned that one side of the ground is bigger and the other is short so plan your bowling and execute your balls [accordingly]," said Shardul Thakur in the post-match presentation.
Shardul Thakur's figures of 3-42 were best among the Indian bowlers. He received brilliant support from Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-30) and Hardik Pandya (2-16), who used all their experiments to help India win the game by 8 runs.
Shardul Thakur talks through the high-pressure last over and India's plan to contain the English batsmen
Shardul Thakur also spoke about the high-pressure last over where he conceded 13 runs off the first three balls, including 2 wayward wides, and came back strong to give away just 1 run off the remainder of the over.
He remarked that against the English batters who were looking to hit every ball out of the park, it was important to squeeze in one or two dot balls and put the pressure back on the opposition.
"There wasn't much dew in the last three games but in this game, there was dew. So definitely a tough last over. They [England batsmen] were swinging hard and they were always going to go for runs. It was important to bowl those 1 or 2 dot balls and the game was sealed," said Shardul Thakur.
One visible plan from most of India's pacers was to bowl back-of-length slower balls and cutters. This worked wonders for the hosts as the England batsmen found it difficult to create the required momentum against these deliveries. Shardul Thakur said in this regard:
"There was dew coming in so had we bowled the slower ones on the stumps or a little fuller then it would have been easier to hit. So the idea was to hit it into the pitch and keep it away from their power zone."
In addition to his brilliant bowling, Shardul Thakur also played an all-important cameo of 10 runs off 4 balls in the first innings, which ultimately proved to be the difference between the sides.
Now the series is evenly poised at 2-2 and the decider, which will begin on March 20, is set up nicely for another cracking contest.