NATIONAL SELECTORS PANEL COMES UNDER FIRE AFTER BHANUKA RAJAPAKSE BLITZ
The members of the national selection panel have come under heavy criticism after Bhanuka Rajapaksa made them eat humble pie with a blistering counterattack, this time with the bat. In Sunday’s IPL clash between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bombay, Rajapaksa threw caution to wind smashing 43 off 22 deliveries with two fours and four sixes.
The hard-hitting 30-year-old batsman was in great nick and chasing a target of 206, he helped his team get home with an over to spare in their first game of the campaign. Rajapaksa maintained a strike rate of 195 and RCB had little answers for his onslaught.
The former Royal College batsman walked into bat after Wanindu Hasaranga had claimed a wicket off the first ball dismissing Mayank Agarwal. Hasaranga is one of the most expensive buys in the IPL and Rajapaksa treated him with disdain smashing two sixes and a four.
“I knew how Hasaranga bowls. It was about knowing him and playing him for the last four to five years now. I bought my local knowledge and it worked,” Rajapaksa said at the post match presentation.
“What we thought was that we’d just have a free hit. Shikhar (Dhawan) wanted me to be aggressive although I had just come out to the middle. This win is a huge confidence booster. We watched this movie called ’14 Peaks’ and we have 14 games. Every game is a batter’s game. The credit should go to the bowlers to restrict them to 200,” Rajapaksa added.