Awana pleased with Raina's wicket in hat-trick

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Cricket365
October 3, 2014

Kings XI Punjab bowler Parvinder Awana may have taken a low-key hat-trick, and it may have been in vain in the end, but he still relished the moment, and enjoyed removing Suresh Raina in particular.

Awana claimed the first hat-trick of the Champions League T20, against Chennai on Thursday, and while his side lost the match, he was impressive with his four wickets.

He bagged Raina in his first spell early on, and then removed Pawan Negi and MS Dhoni with the first balls of his second spell. Despite this though, Chennai won by 65 runs to reach the final.

Awana told <i>clt20.com</i>: "I did exactly what I have been doing in the previous matches. My rhythm was good today and following my plan got me those wickets.

"The plan was to not give them any room and bowl a full length. Since the wicket was slow, I was also putting in more effort by hitting the deck hard.

"When I got Dhoni bhai out, I didn't know it was the hat-trick ball. But I really enjoyed Raina bhai's wicket. He tends to hit that ball really well. I bowled length and hit it hard. It worked in my favour."

Awana was pleased to be KXIP's leading wicket taker in the tournament, with nine wickets in five games, and enjoyed doing well in the absence of Mitchell Johnson, who was out injured.

He said: "At the beginning of the tournament itself Sanjay [Bangar] sir and Joe [Dawes] had told me that I would be playing the role of the spearhead. They asked me to take this opportunity and grow from it as a bowler.

"I had picked wickets for Kings XI previously as well, so it was the right step ahead for me with youngsters like Anureet [Singh] coming in."