‘I was thinking I would be the culprit of the game’ - Arshdeep Singh after dramatic final over against Australia

With just 10 runs to defend in the final over, skipper Suryakumar Yadav handed the ball to Arshdeep Singh, who had a rough day in the middle. However, the left-arm pacer bowled two dot deliveries to start the over and picked up a wicket in the third delivery as Australia felt the pressure. He eventually gave away just three runs in the final over as India won the fifth T20I by six runs.

Notably, on a slow pitch, Arshdeep conceded 37 runs in his first three overs and was blaming himself for leaking too many runs. However, he soon turned into a hero after nailing those yorkers in the final over. After the win, he shared his initial thoughts and eventually thanked the management for believing in him.

“I guess for the big part of the game, for almost the first 19 overs, I was thinking that I gave away too many runs and would be the culprit of the game. But god gave me another chance and I believed in myself. Thanks to god that I defended it and thanks to the staff as well who believed in me,” Arshdeep said while talking to Sports18.

“To be honest, nothing was going through my mind. Surya (Suryakumar Yadav) bhai told me that whatever happens, happens. The credit goes to our batsmen as well. They gave us a really good total here on a tricky wicket and we had a cushion of an extra 15 to 20 runs,” the 24-year-old added.

It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on: Shreyas Iyer

Notably, 160 runs in M Chinnaswamy Stadium proved to be enough for the Indian team. With the bat, Shreyas Iyer played a brilliant knock under pressure as his 53 runs off 37 deliveries helped India reach to a defendable total. Speaking after the match, Iyer stated that he had planned to play an aggressive brand of cricket but had to change his approach looking at the nature of the surface.

“My mindset was to go boom-boom from ball one. But when I saw three wickets falling down, my mind started calculating what would be the best total on this wicket. Then I had a few batsmen contributing as well. It wasn't an easy wicket to bat on, but if you have a total in mind, you try to play accordingly and today was the right example of how we did it as a team,” Iyer said.