Royal Challengers Bangalore off-spinner Washington Sundar feels he is getting rewarded for keeping things simple this IPL, whether it is stifling the batsmen in the powerplay or the middle overs.
Sundar has played a major role in RCB's success so far this season. He grabbed two wickets in two overs against KKR on Monday, including the prized scalp of England World Cup-winning skipper Eoin Morgan. His team won the game by 82 runs.
"I just want to keep things simple and hit the hard length over and again. That's something which has been working for me in this particular season," Sundar said at the post-match press conference.
"I didn't want to try too many things just because you're playing in Sharjah and a very important win for us."
Bowling under the shadow of India legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal, the 21-year-old has an astonishing economy rate of 4.90 this season, even ahead of Afghanistan's star spinner Rashid Khan (5.03).
Sundar (five wickets in seven matches) has bowled 51 dot balls and played the role of restricting the run-flow in middle overs to form a potent spin attack with Chahal (10 wickets).
"We did feel that we will get a lot of persistence for both spinners, at least in the middle phase of the tournament, and I'm very glad to bowl well in tandem with him," he said.
Earlier, on a slow Sharjah wicket where every batsman struggled, AB de Villiers turned the game on its ahead slamming 73 from 33 balls to power RCB to 194 for two.
"Before the game started, we did feel that it might slow down as the game progresses. It did slow down a bit...But the way AB batted, literally made a difference.
"We did feel that 160 would be a very good score but the way he batted, any ground wouldn't have made a difference," Sundar said, giving full credit to his senior South African teammate.
Having overcome an injury setback, South African pacer Chris Morris has also gelled into the side well with yet another splendid bowling figures of 2/17.
"Definitely I think this is what the management would have thought of coming to this tournament, playing him, the composition looks very good in the team. In the last two games he played, he won the game for us. Hopefully, he will do a lot more of that for RCB."
With spin and pace department equally looking potent, RCB have finally managed to tick the box as they sit pretty at third spot (10 points from seven matches) at the midway stage of the tournament.
"The fact that we are playing six bowlers today was very good and we clearly would have seen the result also, winning by 82 runs against a team like KKR. It does boost a lot of confidence in our team.
"The composition looks very good and still a lot more games to come and hopefully we could go really deep into the tournament," Sundar added.
