IPL 2018: James Faulkner is awestruck by Andre Russell's belligerence

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) decimated the Delhi Daredevils by a mammoth margin of 71 runs at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. While the Knights registered their second victory of the tournament, Gautam Gambhir’s men slumped to their third defeat. The game was thoroughly dominated by the home team and they never allowed the visitors a foothold into the game.

Recently, in All-Star of the Match, a show by ESPNCricinfo, James Faulkner, the Australian all-rounder, heaped praises on the Jamaican cricketer. He also mentioned Jason Roy’s drop-catch at the long-on boundary, which gave Russell a lifeline early in his innings, turned out to be a turning point in the context of the game.

The unstoppable innings by Andre Russell

“It was brilliant, it was unstoppable at the moment. 41 off 12 balls Wow; they did give a chance away though when Roy put him down at that could have been the difference between making 170 and 180 and they made 200. What a brilliant innings. He is a strong lad and I’m surprised that they haven’t used the shoulder ball to him a little more, we have spoken about it pre-game” Faulkner said.

The Tasmanian player also asked for the bowlers to churn out variations of pace and lengths in order to keep Andre Russell guessing while mentioning that the bowling by the Daredevils was way too predictable. Russell, currently has 19 sixes to his name from four games at a staggering strike-rate of 239.06.

“Looks like there was a bit of panic because we know how strong he is. He half hits the ball and it goes over the fence. I would have loved the bowlers to change their angles a little bit around, bowl around the wickets, over the wickets as well as using the slower balls. At the moment it’s too predictable and he is getting all over it” he added.

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