Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opening batsman Devdutt Padikkal, who scored unbeaten 101 off 52 balls to steer RCB to a 10-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals on Thursday, expressed reduction on getting again to huge scores after recovering from COVID-19.
Padikkal, who turned solely the third uncapped Indian batsman to get a century in IPL, arrived late to RCB camp since he was recovering from the an infection. He needed to miss the first match. He couldn’t get getting into the subsequent two video games however scored a roaring century on Thursday evening.
“To be honest it’s been special, all I could do was wait for my turn. When I had COVID, all I wanted was to come here and play, and when I missed the first one it really hurt me,” stated Padikkal after being offered with the man-of-the-match award.
“At the end of the day even if I didn’t get a hundred it wouldn’t have mattered to me if the team won. The conversation was very clear, we both (Kohli and him) realised when we were going good. We just wanted to rotate the strike,” stated Padikkal as he added 181 for the first wicket which is the most for the opening wicket for RCB.
Teammate Glenn Maxwell, who had been performing up till now for RCB with AB de Villiers, was thrilled with the efficiency put up by Kohli and Padikkal.
“That was my favourite game to watch so far. Clinical from start to finish. I’ve certainly been looking to go out there, but the way those two went, they were on top the whole way through,” stated Maxwell.
“I’ve not done any work with Devdutt. He’s got a beautiful flow of the bat. Obviously he had COVID at the start of the year, felt a bit flat, but he cashed in,” stated the Aussie batsman.
Virat Kohli turned the first batsman to finish 6,000 runs in the IPL. “Not really, that’s what I was telling Virat to go for it. For me, it’s not about getting to a hundred, I wouldn’t mind missing out on hundreds as long as I contribute to the team’s wins,” Padikkal stated, when requested if he was apprehensive about getting the hundred.
(with company inputs)
