Rajasthan spinner Shreyas Gopal rocked Bangalore early after Rajasthan won the toss and opted to field first at the Sawai Man Singh stadium on Tuesday.
Shreyas took the top three wickets of Bangalore dismissing Virat Kohli, AB De Villers and Shimron Hetmyer, and finished his spell with figures of 3/12.
First he dismissed Kohli with a googly in his first over, that uprooted his stumps. Then in his next over he got the better off De Villiers with a ball that was coming into him. The former South African cricketer failed to read the bounce of the delivery and chipped it straight to Gopal.
Next to go was Hetmyer. He played down the wrong line of a delivery that was going away from him and was dismissed caught behind. The struggle is continuous for the young West Indian in the IPL as he registered his third successive failure.
In Rajasthan’s second game of IPL 2019, against Sunrisers Hyderabad he took a three as well. However, the Men in Pink ended up losing the game.
Gopal along with Krishnappa Gowtham has been handling the mantle of spin bowling for the Royals since the last two years. Rajasthan’s fate heavily rests on their young shoulders if they are to make it to the last four of this season.
As far as his domestic performance for Karnataka is concerned, Gopal has been a regular in his state side and has played a key role in their success in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. He took 8 wickets for Karnataka in the tournament besides playing some important knocks with the bat as well.
Accuracy is one of his greatest strengths as a bowler, plus he has a little bit of mystery about him as well which makes him a tough bowler to face.
The dismissals of Kohli and De Villiers was an example of the same as well. With this performance he is certainly now going to be a regular in the Royals side for the rest of the season.
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