I was trying to study Kuldeep Yadav, even on the bus on our way to ground: Teja Nidamanuru

India continued their rampaging run in the ODI World Cup 2023 as they convincingly defeated the Netherlands on Sunday, November 12 in Bengaluru by 160 runs. The hosts set a target of 411 before bundling the Dutch side for 250.

The Netherlands never gave India a scare during their run-chase but some batters showed the ability to dig deep against a bowling side in red-hot form and that would give the European nation a lot to look forward to in the near future. Teja Nidamanuru came in to bat at No. 7 and scored the only half-century for the Dutch in the match. He hit one four and six sixes during his enterprising knock of 54 off 39 balls. During his innings, Nidamanuru handled Kuldeep Yadav quite well. After the match, he revealed how he went the extra mile to tackle the ace spinner.

"We try to be diligent and have a look at our packages in terms of analysis. Kuldeep is world-class and has taken a lot of wickets. I was trying to study him, even on the bus on our way into the ground," Nidamanuru was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

One of Nidamanuru's sixes was an excellent inside-out shot off Kuldeep. The right-handed batter explained the importance of the work that goes into the execution of a shot like that.

"I was trying to pick his wrong 'un, watch videos of his wrist, try to see what you can see. With [good] intent and positivity, when it comes off in your favour, it's great. But it's the work that goes into the lead-up to [the execution of the shot] which is nice," Nidamanuru said.

Teja Nidamanuru points out differences between India and Netherlands

The 29-year-old lauded the 'Men in Blue' for their execution. He also said that the way Shreyas Iyer, who scored a brilliant 128 not out off 94 balls, approached the middle overs and the way the Netherlands batted in the same phase in their innings was a huge differential factor.

"If you look at how Shreyas Iyer played as compared to how we approached the middle stages, you could see the difference. Look, again, we're a learning team as we've said plenty of times before. We're looking forward to de-briefing, and to continue our evolution overall. The middle [overs] of the game, where the best teams are going at six an over without taking risks, we're losing five-six wickets. That's the difference."

Nidamanuru finished the ODI World Cup 2023 on a strong note with scores of 54 and 41 not out in his last two innings. However, he wasn't happy with how his overall campaign went as he finished with 164 runs from seven games at an average of 27.33.

"It's gone a bit below par, if am honest. Leading into this, earlier in the year, I scored a couple of international hundreds, including one in the qualifiers. So coming here, I had expectations to deliver more consistently for the team. That hasn't happened as well as I would've liked, but there's some positive signs to take forward which I'm happy about," Nidamanuru said.

"I think in terms of where I've been batting personally, playing spin when it's turning and being able to do that when under pressure [has been the biggest challenge]. I think it's one thing being able to do it to a certain standard against teams at a lower intensity or at a different level, but when you're here, [Ravindra] Jadeja's hitting the top of the stumps every time. So it's about being able to turn that good ball into a one the will relieve pressure. Then against pace, being able to have a plan to negate a bit of that swing and nip in terms of how we go about it as a team. Those sort of skill sets we will continue to work on. This tournament has given us a very good reference point that will certainly help us," the Vijayawada-born added.

Also Check: Most Runs in ODI World Cup 2023