This was a hell of a way to start the campaign – Jacob Duffy on his match-winning spell against SRH

Jacob Duffy opened his IPL account with a defining performance, claiming three wickets to stifle SRH early in the season opener. Duffy removed Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy to choke SRH early and eventually finished with figures of 3/22 that earned him the Player of the Match award.

Talking at the post-match presentation, Duffy opened up on his first IPL experience and how being a part of RCB simply enhanced it by a great deal. He also revealed his plan which got him the early breakthroughs in the powerplay, leaving SRH stranded.

Shedding light on his first IPL experience, Jacob Duffy said, “It was awesome. I’ve heard a lot of great things about Bengaluru and RCB, and this was a hell of a way to start the campaign. I thought it was a pretty well-rounded team performance.”

Underlining the plan he stuck to, Duffy said, “I just tried to keep things fairly simple. The plan was to use the new ball, especially since it does a bit here in Bangalore. It can get tricky later on. I was lucky to pick up a few wickets early and then the skipper just kept giving me the ball. And as a bonus, I got to walk off after finishing my spell, a good day overall.”

He further added, “We spoke a lot about lengths and what works on this surface. Josh had a really good season here last year, so it was about building on what he did well and trying to replicate that in my own way.”

Revealing the lessons he brought to the mix from the T20 World Cup, Duffy said, “I guess I had a basic template coming into that tournament. There were a couple of tough moments, definitely a few long showers thinking things through! But this is a different kind of wicket. I haven’t seen this kind of bounce in the last couple of months. It’s not the easiest place for bowlers, so I’m just learning on the go.”

When asked if Duffy wanted to hammer in a fourth over right at the start, the Kiwi pace ace said, “No, that was the captain’s call. He just told me to go, and I was more than happy to take it on. Like I said, when the ball is new and hard here, that’s probably the best time to bowl. I was fortunate to bowl in those phases and the other guys handled the tougher overs later.”