IPL 2023: Josh Hazlewood analyses RCB’s performance against LSG

On his return to professional cricket after an Achilles injury, Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood picked up two wickets while giving away just 15 runs in his three overs as Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Lucknow Super Giants by 18 runs at the latter’s home ground. Notably, batting first, the Faf du Plessis-led side posted only 126 runs and thus, they needed something extraordinary with the ball in order to win the match.

Notably, RCB picked up four wickets in the powerplay and that set the tone of the innings as LSG batters struggled throughout the night. Krishnappa Gowtham tried to fight back in the middle but the 34-year-old eventually got involved in a run-out incident and post that, it was RCB’s game to lose.

Alongside Hazlewood, Karn Sharma picked up two wickets as well, while Mohammed Siraj, Glenn Maxwell, Wanindu Hasaranga and Harshal Patel picked up one each.

Meanwhile, analysing their performance against LSG, Hazlewood stated that it’s good for the bowlers to occasionally bowl on a pitch that favours them and also talked about how Siraj gave RCB a perfect start in the first over.

“It was a good change-up. We have played a lot of cricket at Chinnaswammy, which has been a batting paradise. I think it’s good to have occasionally one for the bowlers in a low-scoring affair. It was quite a tight match and exciting as well. One team was really never out of it,” Hazlewood was quoted as saying by India Today.

“It started in Siraj’s first over. I think a wicket and one run offered. It was a great start and we sort of and we sort of jumped on the back of that. I think at half time we knew we were still in the game, it was a tough wicket to bat on. We knew that we had to bowl them out to win the game. If they had seven-eight batters bat the 20 overs, they were going to get 130 runs. It was all about attacking and taking wickets,” he added.

Achilles is feeling pretty good, tonight was a stepping stone: Hazlewood

Due to an injury to his Achilles, Hazlewood was out of action for quite a few months as he missed the all-important Border-Gavaskar Trophy, despite travelling to India for it. He missed the first eight games of RCB in the ongoing IPL 2023, but on his return, the ace pacer impressed everyone.

Meanwhile, talking about his fitness, the 32-year-old mentioned that his Achilles is feeling pretty good and it made him happy to finally hit the ground running.

“It was nice to have a hit out in the middle tonight. Achilles is feeling pretty good. Tonight was a stepping stone,” Hazlewood added.