Ashish Nehra inspires us to be fearless: Sai Kishore

NEW DELHI: Left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore hailed head coach Ashish Nehra for fostering a “beautiful environment” within the Gujarat Titans team, allowing every member to play cricket fearlessly.

After his match-winning performance against Punjab Kings in Mullanpur on Sunday, Tamil Nadu team skipper Ranji highlighted Nehra’s role. Sai Kishore’s impressive figures of 4 for 33 played a major role in securing a three-wicket win for his IPL team.

“I was playing after 20-25 days, so I just wanted to go out and enjoy and give my 120 percent. (Coach) Ashish Nehra has created a beautiful environment where we can be fearless and play for the team. He told me to to enjoy and gave me a lot of freedom,” said the lanky tweaker.


GT skipper Shubman Gill agreed that their team should have completed the race well before the 20th.

“I would have liked to finish it earlier, good to get those two points,” said Gill.

On his new role as skipper, Gill stated that he is able to compartmentalize his batting and leadership.

“It was very exciting for me to be able to take on this role. When I’m batting, I’m playing as a hitter,” he said.

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Punjab Kings stand-in skipper Sam Curran admitted that 165 would have been ideal on that track. The hosts managed only 142.

“The effort with the ball was incredible, the team’s fight was great. But it (the win) was not meant to happen again. They (GT) have some world class spinners and Sai Kishore bowled very well, England all-rounder said.

“I thought we got a decent score but in the end they got over the line. Anything over 160-165 would have been difficult. I thought we gave ourselves a chance with the way we bowled. We lost wickets in clusters .”

(With PTI inputs)