Prince Yadav reveals he played with Abhishek Sharma’s bat during crucial Indore cameo

Indore, Oct 12 (IANS) India fast bowler Prince Yadav revealed he used star opener Abhishek Sharma’s bat while scoring a crucial cameo against the West Indies in the third T20I at the Holkar Stadium here.

Prince made 13 runs off six balls and hit three fours in the final over off Shamar Joseph to help the Men in Blue finish at 223 in 20 overs, after Arshdeep Singh also hit 11 off eight.

Prince also bowled a couple of tough overs in the death overs and kept his two overs to 20 runs, while the Windies needed much more with the asking rate climbing past 15.

As India won the game by 14 runs in the end, Prince spoke about his cameo, revealing that Abhishek had given him the bat with which he hit those three fours.

“Obviously, brother, it is great to contribute to the team, whether it’s with the ball, bat, or in the fielding. So, I am feeling good. So, Abhi bhaiya gave me his bat earlier and said, ‘don’t embarrass the bat’. So, I kept its honour,” Prince told bcci.tv in a chat with Abhishek after the game.

Meanwhile, Abhishek also heaped praise on Prince for his capabilities to hit crucial runs in the end. “I’ve seen his batting; if anyone hasn’t seen it, he’s famous in Delhi for ‘single phatti’. Single phatti means one-on-one matches. In that, you have to both bat and bowl.

“So he has that talent to hit sixes and fours. We saw a bit of it today, and we’ll see more in future. As for the bat, well…you need power too,” Abhishek said.

Prince stated that he had batted with Abhishek’s bat in Ireland too, where he had hit a six and vowed to play with the opener’s willow in the future too. “I played with Abhi bhaiya’s bat in England too (Ireland),” Prince said, before Abhishek quipped, “he hit a six there.”

Prince continued, “Yeah, I hit a six in Ireland too and here as well. So, I will take bhaiya’s bat the next time too.” Abhishek replied, “Granted”, as Prince then thanked the star batter for the bat.

Captain Shreyas Iyer had also praised Prince for the cameo. “We steadied the ship in the middle order as well. That took us to a commendable total of 223. Even Prince coming and playing that cameo at the end, those were useful runs, I felt,” Shreyas said in the post-match presentation.

–IANS

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