Rashid Khan is back on form after taking two wickets for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Mumbai Indians on Tuesday night in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match.
Rashid won the man of the match award. His scalps were Krunal Pandya and Keiron Pollard, which tightened the screws on Mumbai Indians, taking Sunrisers to a 31-run win after setting a below-par target of 119 runs for the hosts.
Sunrisers moved a place up on the log to third position in the Indian Premier League standings after registering their fourth win in six games.
Times of India reported that it was arguably the best bowling attack of the season by Sunrisers, who also defended the lowest total this year, 118, by bowling out the defending champions for 87 in 18.5 overs.
It was also the second lowest target successfully defended ever in the history of IPL. Mumbai remained at seventh after suffering their fifth defeat in six games.
Mumbai Indians, who have now lost five out of their six matches, folded for just 87 on a Wankhede Stadium, in Mumbai, track where the ball was coming slowly off the wicket.
Sunrisers captain Kane Williamson ensured that his team kept their pace, despite managing to put only 118 on the board, after Mayank Markande, Mitchell McClenaghan and Hardik Pandya picked two wickets apiece to derail the Sunrisers batting.
Speaking after the match, and referring to his thrashing at the hands of Chris Gayle in the match, against Kings XI Punjab last week, Rashid said: “Till you don’t get hit, you don’t learn. It happens, it’s a part of the game, I’m learning lot of things from it after giving 55 and 48 runs in the last two games.”
“It wasn’t expected from me but for my future, it was good for me because I learnt from that,” he said.
“We had a good chat before this game and the only thing was to be positive. Some bad days happen in a player’s career and you learn from that, try not to repeat from that. That’s what I was doing today, got the basics right and you can see the result,” he added.
“Compared to the last two games, I bowled a little bit fuller in the last two games which didn’t help me, and I was punished. The only thing today was to bowl in a good-length area as much as possible and that’s what helped me bowl with good figures. The only thing was line and length, that’s what I have worked on and it’s a positive.”
Khan’s other Afghan teammate Mohammad Nabi also played his first match of the season for Sunrisers and got 14 runs and a wicket in Tuesday night’s match.
Sunrisers will play their next match against Kings XI Punjab on Thursday night. Rashid and Nabi will face fellow Afghan player Mujeeb Zadran.