Mumbai: He turned out to be one of the two Mumbai villains in the Gujarat side along with veteran Pravin Tambe. Dhawal Kulkarni relished his debut outing with Gujarat Lions picking up two vital wickets of Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya and scoring a crucial boundary in the final over that helped the Lions inch closer to the target.
Batting alongside Aussie Aaron Finch’s knock was one of the best innings 27-year-old Kulkarni, a regular at Wankhede, had ever seen.
He played throughout and he helped us win. He batted from the start and made sure we end up on the winning side. My game plan was to just give him strike. Anything I pitched up I had to slog and luckily Bumrah (Jasprit Bumrah) bowled a half volley and I could hit a boundary,” the former Mumbai Indians all-rounder said, here during the post-match presentation on Saturday.
Kulkarni, who also savoured the battle against his former skipper Rohit, said,
I feel I am always there for that battle. When you see your teammate face you, it gives me that extra energy to bowl at him. He is such a great player and to take his wicket was a great moment for me.
I have always looked up to him and he has always helped me in the Bombay (Mumbai) dressing room. On the field while we were playing against each there was no friendship.”
The Suresh Raina-led side completed a hat-trick of wins and consolidated their position at the top of the table.
I felt the team has gelled pretty well. We had a camp for a week or so before the IPL, so guys had a chance to get to know each other. I see a lot of unity in the team and winning the first game was important for us and that’s what we did, the rest followed,” Kulkarni said.
Kulkarni was left in awe with Raina’s captaincy. “He is very good, a matured cricketer and has a lot of experience. He is leading pretty well at the moment and is doing a lot of good changes on and off the field. He supports the bowlers. Its not that he makes his own plans, he is pretty flexible as a captain,” he added.
