'God always has the right time for us': Tilak-Nitish reflect on stellar Christchurch win

Christchurch, Oct 25 (IANS) Hyderabad boys Tilak Varma and Nitish Kumar Reddy reflected on a stellar win against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch, heaping praise on each other's performances and highlighting the win.
 

The two Hyderabad lads were recently at the epicentre of a lost T20I against West Indies in Hyderabad, where they were not able to pull off a miraculous win in the 248-run chase, but produced a stellar come-from-behind win in the second T20I in challenging conditions against the Kiwis on Saturday.

Tilak scored an unbeaten 51 from 26 balls, while Nitish made an unscathed 26 from 13 deliveries after Naman Dhir provided hope with his 31 from 17 balls in the chase.

Tilak and Nitish referenced the Windies loss in Hyderabad, but felt that "God always has a right time" for things to happen, as their unbeaten 69-run stand in Christchurch helped the Men in Blue chase down 181 for an unlikely win.

"Guys, I have the player of the match today," Nitish began the interaction after the win in a video shared by the BCCI. Tilak was quick to reply, "I have the game changer of the match today."

The two reflected on their partnership, which turned out to be a match-winning one. "Tilak, tell me, how did you feel about our partnership in the middle? For me, it felt absolutely amazing," Nitish quizzed.

"I also felt very good about it. Back in Hyderabad, both of us basically thought that if we could win the match today, having two Telugu guys out in the middle. But like I always say, God always has the right time for us. We have to keep following the process and keep working hard, and the right things will come at the right time," Tilak said.

The second T20I was played on the same surface as of the first one, and the wear and tear was well visible as the ball gripped and challenged the batters to play their strokes. Moreover, the pockets of the ground were also large, which made six-hitting difficult.

"More than that, with difficult conditions and a big ground, I think the wicket was really challenging today, especially if you see, big ground, slower side and also if you see when they were bowling bouncers, it is really coming quick, so it's not easy to hit whenever you want to his sixes. 

"Honestly, if you see in the first game, it was easy to hit sixes. But in this game, as everyone knows, it was pretty challenging. When a challenge comes, you know how we want to play smartly. (That's) how we played today. We want to show our fitness levels, our core work into the game in (running) those twos, singles and running hard, and whenever we want, we were hitting sixes," Tilak added.

The two players kept the scoreboard ticking with quick runs and found boundaries at crucial stages to seal the game on the second-last ball with four wickets in hand. 

While the two had helped India cross the line, all-rounder Naman also played a key role in infusing hope back into the Indian team with his stroke-laden 31. India were 70/5 after 10.5 overs, but Naman provided the much-needed impetus before Tilak and Nitish finished it off. 

"I really enjoyed playing with him. I know, he's a quick runner and I'm a quick runner too. We really enjoyed playing together, but the thing which I wanted to appreciate about Tilak is (that) when Naman Dhir was going pretty well, he was striking tremendously, and then Tilak came in; he was not risking at all, he just gave singles to Naman and Naman does his things," Nitish said.

"One thing: when Naman was batting, I also wanted to go for the big shots, but I have promised myself to Gautam sir and Kotak sir that I will take the game deep from next time onwards. In the last game (first T20I), my mindset was slightly defensive; I wanted to take the initial singles, and I wanted to take the game deep. But today, when I was at the crease, I wanted to hit boundaries off spinners. But I played (sensibly) when Naman was hitting. I thought I'd calm myself and take the game deep. After that, (it was) God's plan," Tilak added.

--IANS

vm/bc