He turned out to be one of the two Mumbai ‘villains’ in the Gujarat side along with veteran Pravin Tambe. Dhawal Kulkarni relished his debut outing with Gujarat Lions picking up vital wickets of Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya and scoring a crucial boundary in the final over that helped the Lions inch closer to the target.
Batting alongside Aussie Aaron Finch was one of the best innings Kulkarni had ever seen. “He played throughout and helped us win. He batted from the start and made sure we end up on the winning side. My game plan was to just give him the strike. Anything I pitched up, I had to slog and luckily (Jasprit) Bumrah bowled a half volley and I could hit a boundary,” the former Mumbai Indians all-rounder said.
The side led by Suresh Raina completed a hat-trick of wins and consolidated their position at the top of the table.
Kulkarni was left in awe with Raina’s captaincy. “He is very good, a matured cricketer and has a lot of experience. He is leading pretty well at the moment and is doing a lot of good changes on and off the field. He supports the bowlers. It is not that he makes his own plans, he is pretty flexible as a captain,” the 27-year-old added. Kulkarni said dismissing Rohit Sharma was a great moment for him.
