Veteran India pace bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar said that the final result was not on his mind when he came to defend 12 runs in the final over against Rajasthan Royals on Thursday (May 2). SRH, who were put under the pump in the run chase, managed to clinch a thrilling one-run win in Hyderabad as well.

“I told everyone process is very important,” Bhuveshwar said after the game. “I was literally thoughtless, I was not thinking about the result. I was just trying to do what I can do.”

Bhuvneshwar Kumar starred with the ball

With Rovman Powell facing strike for most of the balls in the final over, Bhuvneshwar’s task became more difficult, especially with SRH forced to bring in an extra fielder due to a slow over-rate as well. With two runs needed off the final ball, he bowled a low full toss that was missed by the batter completely as he got trapped lbw as well.

“I knew if I could bowl just two good balls, and if it went to the last ball, anything could happen,” he said. “It was a full toss, I know, but he missed it. I was not thinking about the one extra fielder up, or whatever the restriction was there, I was so detached from the result. I wasn’t thinking about where the fielder is, where he is going to hit, where I’m gonna bowl, I was so focused on the process, that was the only thing I was doing.”

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However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar also did well with the new ball as he put the Royals on the backfoot very early. He dismissed both Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson for ducks.

“It was the first match the ball swung so much,” he added. “I can’t really pinpoint where the ball swung last, but the way it swung I literally enjoyed it. When it swings, you are always on top of the game, you try to take wickets and luckily, I got wickets.”

Rajasthan Royals gave a tough fight

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals’ batting allrounder Riyan Parag also dismissed suggestions that some of the batters, including himself, threw their wickets away especially when they were heading towards another win at one stage. Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal stitched 134 for the third wicket and had the upperhand in the game before getting dismissed.

“I don’t think any one of us threw our wickets,” he noted. “Jaiswal tried that scoop because Natarajan was bowling good slow bouncers and hence he predicted a yorker and went with that shot. I tried to muscle it for a six, probably an error in execution but I don’t really think we threw our wickets. It would have been nice to stay till the end, it was the plan for both of us.”

“I was pretty confident but you have to give credit to how they bowled,” he said. “It’s their home ground, they bowled like they knew how the wicket was playing. You got to give credit to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Natarajan and Cummins. Cummins especially bowling that 19th over, going for 8 runs or something like that, they bowled better than us in the slog overs.”