NEW DELHI: One of India’s heroes in the third one-day international against Sri Lanka, pacer Mohammed Siraj disclosed that he has changed his approach and stopped worrying about his performances unlike earlier in his career. Instead he has started focussing only on execution. The 28-year-old bowler returned with superb figures of 4 for 32 from his 10 overs to bundle out Sri Lanka for 73 in 22 overs as India won the third ODI of the three-match series by a record 317 runs in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. Siraj said the transformation has come about because he started focussing on the execution of line and length in white-ball cricket following the 2022 IPL disappointment.
“When the IPL season went bad for me, I started focusing on white-ball cricket. I worked on it and grew in confidence. I stopped worrying about how my performance would go which was not the case earlier. I started focusing only on execution of line and length,” Siraj said. Siraj, who was retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore ahead of the 2022 season, had only nine wickets in 15 matches with an economy of more than 10 runs per over. Bowling with wobbled seam Siraj said the beauty of bowling with a wobbled seam lies in its unpredictability. So much so that he even doesn’t know how much the ball will do after pitching. Siraj has been reaping the benefits of bowling with a wobbled seam since he discovered the art in 2018. He picked up nine wickets in the ODI series against Sri Lanka, providing India the much needed wickets with the new ball. “With wobbled seam, how much the ball will do neither I know nor the batter. Sometimes it goes straight after pitching, other times it can come in sharply. Most of my wickets come through wobbled seam. It is effective for me and I trust it to work for me,” said Siraj after the third ODI.
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Milestone man Virat Kohli leads India to record ODI win against Sri Lanka
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<p>Virat Kohli is looking hungrier for big runs and has started producing those with consummate ease and effortless strokeplay. </p>
<p>On Sunday, Kohli broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 20 ODI centuries on home soil and his unbeaten 166 was the 46th of his career in this format.</p>
<p>During the course of his innings, Kohli also went past Mahela Jayawardene to rise to fifth in ODI’s all-time run-scorers chart. </p>
<p>But much more than those numbers, it is the manner in which Kohli is scoring the runs that will be giving the rival bowlers sleepless nights. </p>
<p>Kohli started showing signs of returning to form in the Asia Cup last year. </p>
<p>Kohli’s match-winning unbeaten 82 against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup was a classic and he translated the T20 form that he showed in the latter half of last year into ODIs. </p>
<p>The longer format also gives Kohli time and space to pace his innings. </p>
<p>After going century-less for more than three years, Kohli has now three tons in his last four innings. </p>
<p>On Sunday, Kohli looked in ominous touch the moment he arrived at the crease. </p>
<p>Kohli started with a cracking drive through the mid-off region off just the second ball he faced. From then on there was no looking back. </p>
<p>Kohli cut, drove, and pulled the hapless bowlers in all directions. </p>
<p>At 34, Kohli is still the fittest member of this Indian team and that is helping him pinch singles and twos to supplement his brilliant stroke-making. </p>
<p>However, the biggest takeaway from Kohli’s innings was how he accelerated to perfection. </p>
<p>Kohli’s first 50 came off 48 balls and was laced with five fours. </p>
<p>Kohli increased his pace and reached the three-figure mark off 85 balls and it contained eight fours and a six. </p>
<p>Kohli pushed the pedal on the accelerator once he crossed 100 and by the time he walked back at the end of his innings, he had eight sixes and 13 fours in his 110-ball knock. </p>
<p>Kohli has amassed 12,754 runs in 268 ODIs for India, behind Sachin Tendulkar (18,426), Kumar Sangakkara (14,234), Ricky Ponting (13,704) and Sanath Jayasuriya (13,430).</p>
<p>Kohli took the score close to 400 as India smashed 116 runs in the last 10 overs with contributing 84 of those.</p>
<p>Kohli felt that it is his mindset that is helping him get those big knocks again. </p>
The skilful pacer said he used the wobbled seam after his natural inswinger deserted him. “Inswing was my natural earlier but then it stopped so I also developed outswing. When I did not have the inswing, I developed the wobbled seam. It took a lot of time to get effective and give me confidence. The more I bowled in the nets, the better I got. In the IPL, I spoke to Dale Steyn as well for outswing which helped me a lot,” Siraj elaborated. Talking about the Sri Lanka series, he said his plan was simple. “The plan was to take early wickets and put pressure on the opposition.” Siraj is now looking forward to playing at his home ground on January 18 when India take on New Zealand in the first ODI. “It would be nice to play at the home ground with my family, coaches and friends watching me,” he added. (With inputs from PTI)
