India all-rounder Axar Patel said that he mostly tried to vary his pace on the slow and low pitches in the West Indies. On Sunday, August 7, Patel earned the Player of the Match after he picked up a three-wicket haul in the fifth and final T20I against Nicholas Pooran’s men in the Caribbean.
On the back of his spell, the Men in Blue defeated West Indies by 88 runs and won the five-match T20I series 4-1. After being asked to chase down 189, the hosts lost three wickets in the powerplay, all of which were picked by Axar, who also hit a six in his seven-ball knock of nine.
“My plan was to vary my pace. I knew wickets were slow. And tried to bowl stump to stump. The main thing is that I need to back my strength, because in T20s, batters try to hit you. So you just focus on bowling good areas and using your strength and your pace,” Axar was quoted as saying after the match.
“I am an all-rounder – doesn’t matter batting or bowling. The day I bat well, I’ll be a batting all-rounder. The day I bowl well, you can call me a bowling all-rounder,” he added.
