Zaheer Khan explained the importance of Dhruv Jurel's whirlwind half-century in Wednesday's Eliminator between the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Mullanpur.
The wicketkeeper-batter amassed a 20-ball half-century after Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's stunning 97-run knock off 29 deliveries. While the legendary Zaheer said that Sooryavanshi's innings overshadowed Jurel's half-century, the RR team management will know the importance of both knocks. Zaheer highlighted the middle-order's
flop show against the Sunrisers to elucidate the significance of Jurel's effort.
"It was valuable when you look at how the middle-order fared after that. But it's definitely going to get overshadowed because of Vaibhav Suryavanshi. However, the team will know how important Jurel has been throughout the season," Zaheer said on Cricbuzz.
In the 14th over, Jurel became the third RR batter to be dismissed. In the last 37 balls of the innings, the Royals lost five wickets and aggregated just 48 runs.
"When Burger is not there, Jofra feels the added responsibility" - Zaheer Khan
Zaheer heaped praise on Rajasthan's seam-bowling duo of Jofra Archer and Nandre Burger. The former India pacer said that in the games where Burger was benched, Archer tried too hard to get wickets, and that hampered his performance. He believes that together, the pair poses a greater threat to the opposition battrs.
"When Burger is not there, Jofra feels the added responsibility of creating breakthroughs. Then, as a bowler, you can be desperate for wickets. That, at times, hampers your line and length. You saw that in one of the games when Archer tried too much and bowled down the legs a lot," said Zaheer (via the aforementioned source).
"RR have finally figured out of the bowling combination. The Nandre-Jofra combination worked really well for them early in the season but they moved away from that. It was probably to bring in Donovan Ferreira or Shimron Hetmyer, who is not part of the combination now. The bowling lineup now complements each other," he added.
Archer took the wickets of SRH's famed top three - Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, and Ishan Kishan. Burger also chipped in with a couple of wickets as SRH were bowled out for 196 in pursuit of a 244-run target.
