Bangalore: Karn Sharma was the star for Sunrisers Hyderabad with the ball against Royal Challengers Bangalore but the leg-spinner rues the 'tough' drop chance of AB de Villiers as he feels the wicket could have titled the match in his side's favour.
Chasing Sunrisers' 155 for six, de Villiers produced one of the most devastating Twenty20 innings as he smashed an unbeaten 89 from just 42 balls to single-handedly power RCB to a sensational four-wicket victory in Bangalore on Sunday.
The South African batsman, however, got a reprieve when he was on 30 as Karn dropped a tough chance at backward point off Irfan Pathan's bowling. "If I had held on to that catch, maybe the game could have swung in our favour. But it is part and parcel of the game; at times you hold on to those and sometimes they don't stick to your hands," said Karn, who registered impressive figures of three for 17 from his four overs against RCB.
For Karn it was his "best performance" this season and the wickets of Chris Gayle, Rilee Rossouw and Yuvraj Singh made it more special. "I am happy with my performance but a bit disappointed that we couldn't win the game. We had done well throughout the game but just lost our way at the end," he told IPL's official website.
"This is my best bowling performance this year. I got three big wickets for the side. My aim was to put them under pressure and not give too many easy runs." With just two wins out of six games, the Sunrisers have lot of work to do but Karn believes the Hyderabad outfit is still in the fray. "Our hopes are still alive in the tournament. Our goal will be to play the remainder of the matches well, not to make the mistakes we did in this game and hopefully turn the results in our favour," he said.
