'Extra bounce my ally,' says Rabada after three-wicket haul

"The most important thing as a team is to prioritise the win first and the net run-rate, it will come," Kagiso Rabada says after Gujarat Titans took 19.4 overs to reach their target of 181

Gujarat Titans (GT) are known to make solid plans and stick to them. In Ahmedabad on Friday night, against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), they bowled three overs each of Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada in the powerplay, where most teams would have run through much of their pack of bowlers. In this case, Rabada said, the decision was taken after "summarising how we feel the wicket is going to play".

"In India, it's basically looking at three scenarios, whether you're bowling on black [soil] or red [soil] or a combination, and then sometimes a wicket's not really going to play the way that you expect it to play," Rabada said at the press conference after the match. "Having a look at this wicket today, it looked pretty similar to the other red-soil pitches that we've played on but it behaved a little bit differently, although quite similar.

"But with the new ball, perhaps there was a bit more moisture and it was a bit more two-paced, a little bit of uneven bounce, so the batsmen couldn't really throw their hands at everything, they had to really check their strokes.RelatedGill's silken 86 keeps KKR winless after six games

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"That was the decision and the decision was for myself and Siraj to bowl for the entire powerplay and on any given day, you could have them five down in that powerplay, but we'll take three-down any day. Then, moving on to the middle overs and the death overs, it's just about executing a game plan that we feel is going to work based on what we've adapted or pre-planned what we wanted to do."

With KKR 37 for 3 after the powerplay, one has to say the ploy worked. And for Rabada, who has an economy rate of 10.05 this season so far, it was a return to wicket-taking form. He finished with 3 for 29, after he had four wickets from GT's first four games.

"Extra bounce has probably been my ally throughout my entire career," he said. "So different bowlers bowl differently. Some bowlers are more skiddy, some bowlers get more extra bounce. You have a look at a guy like Siraj, he's more skiddy. And on wickets that stay low, he becomes a lot more of a threat than I do.

"Whereas on pitches that perhaps have a bit more bounce, you're looking at that favouring my strength a bit more. But at the end of the day, it's about extracting all that you can from wickets that might seem placid, but today it wasn't placid at all, there was a bit of moisture in that wicket."1:08Do GT need middle-order reinforcement?

The bowlers did their job well against KKR, restricting them to 180. A total over 200 looked more likely at the start of the death overs, but KKR scored just 23 runs in those four overs. GT still took 19.4 overs to cross the target. They are fourth on the table at this stage, but the speed of scoring might be a worry, especially when net run-rates become crucial at the business end of the tournament.

"The most important thing is to win. The net run-rate is something that you want to be good, but I don't think it's something that you prioritise," Rabada said. "I think prioritising the win first is important and playing the situation accordingly. We know that we have the depth and the skill to score quicker, especially in the middle overs, but then again, you have to trust the guys in the middle, you have to trust their natural games because they know what they're doing in the middle there.

"Those same guys are not coming to me telling me how to bowl so we're not going to tell them how to bat. But the most important thing as a team is to prioritise the win first and the net run-rate, it will come. This is only game number five, so there are quite a few more games left, nine games.

"There's a lot of games to improve that and sometimes it's just momentum. That kind of stuff is momentum, you don't want to go into a game wanting to get your net run-rate higher, it's more momentum and how a team is playing throughout the different scenarios."