'Eat, sleep and bowl'

RR pacer Avesh Khan celebrates a RCB wicket on Wednesday. Pic/BCCI

Avesh Khan (3-44) played a key role in the Rajasthan Royals eliminating the Royal Challengers Bengaluru by four wickets to set up a qualifying date with Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday night at the MA Chidambaram International Cricket Stadium in Chennai.

Poor start, but fine finish

Avesh started the Eliminator on the wrong foot. He conceded 30 runs without a wicket in his first two overs, but made amends in his last two overs where he conceded just14 runs. In fact, in his last over - the 19th of the RCB innings - Avesh bagged two crucial wickets and conceded just five runs. Avesh accounted for Rajat Patidar, Mahipal Lomror, and Dinesh Karthik to derail RCB's death-over onslaught.

Before the start of the season, Lucknow Super Giants had traded the new-ball bowler to Rajasthan Royals for Devdutt Padikkal. "The trade was not in my hands, but I took it positively. Rajasthan's ground is also quite big, and the team is also good, as a bowler, you need such margins," Avesh said at the post-match media interaction which went into the early hours of Thursday morning. Avesh had to wait, in the corridors without air conditioning for over 20 minutes before his former coach at RCB, Andy Flower, could finish his interaction with media. Avesh greeted Flower with a hug before addressing reporters in Hindi. He was frank and spoke from his heart about mental toughness and his methods to stay focused.

‘Mental toughness is key'

Avesh indicated that he had worked on his mental toughness, but when it comes to bowling in crunch situations, he forgets everything and solely focuses on execution.

"Your execution could go off the mark, but if you are mentally and physically fresh, you will be able to execute better. I realised later that there is no point in taking too much tension," Avesh said.

"Toh, hum bahut simple rakhte hai. Khana, sona aur daalna [So, I've things very simple. You have to eat, sleep, and keep bowling] and this has changed my life and also impacted my cricket," added Avesh, who has bagged 16 wickets in 15 matches in this IPL so far.