IPL 2023 | Vyshak: RCB team management told me to 'express myself'

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) pacer Vijaykumar Vyshak, who grabbed an impressive 3 for 20 against Delhi Capitals (DC) on his IPL debut on Saturday (April 15), was apprehensive about bowling his knuckle ball, but got the confidence after the team management told him to “express yourself”.

The 26-year-old cleverly mixed his lengths, varied his pace and bowled a perfect knuckle ball with an upright seam to take the DC batters by surprise in an IPL 2023 game.

“I wasn’t ready to bowl the knuckle ball but Faf came and told me again, You can probably go for a slower one so I thought Ill do that and I got a wicket,” Vyshak said at the presentation ceremony after RCBs 23-run win.

Also read: IPL 2023 full schedule, match times, venues

“It’s very important because the management has told me to go express yourself so I think I did that and I’m very pleased with the performance.

“Faf came and told me that the wicket was holding a bit so I backed my strength and bowled my slower ones a little more and I think that helped for me.”

Vyshak bowled a smart slower one to get his maiden wicket in the form of David Warner, and his knuckle ball did Axar Patel in.

Also read: IPL 2023: RCB keep DC winless

“I’ve been working on it for two years so I think it’s finally paid off.”

ON THE RISE! ⚡

More on Vyshak’s journey from the nets to the match, and Captain Faf couldn’t be happier! 👏#PlayBold #ನಮ್ಮRCB #IPL202 pic.twitter.com/9sgjvNt8fF

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) April 16, 2023

A net bowler to start with, Vyshak was unsold at the IPL auction and RCB drafted him in place of injured batter Rajat Patidar.

“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a very long time. I’ve been working hard so I think it’s been paying off.”

Wicket slowed down, 175-target was enough: Kohli

Premier India batter Virat Kohli, who was adjudged the player-of-the-match for his 34-ball 50 and three catches during DCs run chase, rued that he not able to score big.

“I was quite disappointed that I got out to a full toss. Id been playing really well and after I got to 50, I was targeting 30-35 runs in the next 10 balls,” Kohli said.

At one point, RCB were looking at a 200-plus total but they could not finish well and lost wickets in a heap in the back end.

Kohli said RCB’s total was enough as the wicket slowed down.

“It felt like 175 was enough on this pitch. It felt like it slowed down,” he said.

Should have been an easy chase: Warner

DC skipper David Warner blamed their batters for not able to chase down 175.

“We lost too many early wickets. We didn’t build partnerships chasing that total. It should have been an easy task but unfortunately we didn’t come up trumps,” Warner said.

“We lost three wickets in the powerplay and runouts are non-negotiable in this format and that sometimes can cost you the game,” he said, referring to Prthvi Shaw’s run-out.”

With five losses on the trot, DC might be staring at an early elimination, but Warner remained optimistic.

“Things aren’t working at the moment but teams have come back from 0-5 so hopefully we can be that second team,” the Australian said.

(With agency inputs)