Rajat Patidar literally was the cynosure of all eyes as he owned the biggest stage of his nascent career with a magnificent hundred that got Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) within a sniffing distance of title clash after out-batting Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by 14 runs in the IPL Eliminator on Wednesday.
RCB will meet Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the second Qualifier on Friday, which will decide Gujarat Titans' (GT) opposition for Sunday's final Courtesy Patidar's 54-ball-112 not out which had 12 fours and seven huge sixes.
Meanwhile, RCB's seamer Harshal Patel does feel the nerves while bowling in the death overs but says he wants to be in those extreme pressure situations game after game.
The 31-year-old, who represents Haryana at the domestic circuit, has been the most improved bowler in the recent past and has cleverly used his variations to get the better of batters in the death overs.
Harshal also enhanced his reputation as a 'death overs specialist' in the IPL Eliminator against LSG.
"Whether I would be able to deliver or not, I don't really know, I can't say. But I want to be in those situations, there is no doubt about that," Harshal said after the match.
"I have been wanting to do that for the past two-three years, I have been doing that for Haryana, and I wanted to do it at the bigger stage and I will continue to put myself in those situations, sometimes it is going to come off, sometimes it is not going to come off.
"There will be games where I will end up losing for the team and I am okay with that as long as I don't shy away from challenges," said Harshal, who will lead the bowling challenge alongside Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the upcoming T20I series against South Africa next month.
On Wednesday, while defending 208 against Lucknow Super Giants, Harshal bowled a tidy spell of 2-0-8-0 in the middle overs.
But with KL Rahul and hard-hitting Marcus Stoinis looking to break free at the death, the seamer was summoned to bowl the 18th over with 41 runs to defend.
"First of all, yes, I was nervous, there is no doubt about that. If you are defending 35 off 18 balls, then you're going to be nervous around it.
"I knew when I gave away six runs without bowling a ball, gave away those wides, I knew that the wide yorker won't work.
"So I thought what worked for me in the first two overs, I want to go back to that and give myself the best opportunity to get KL (Rahul) and Stoinis out. Fortunately, I got Stoinis out at the boundary," he said.
Harshal, who had bagged 21 wickets for RCB last season, once again has been their bowling backbone and has 19 wickets from 15 matches in this IPL.
"I knew that the majority of my deliveries would be slower balls on this sort of a wicket, because as soon as you gave pace, the wicket made it easy to hit," Harshal said.
He said he got that indication when LSG bowled at them in the first innings.
"Whenever in their bowling when they bowled short or slower balls, it wasn't coming nicely on to the bat, so that was a clue that I want to bowl short and into the pitch -- slow as I can and then mix it up with a good yorker, good hard length ball," Harshal signed off.
