Sangwan makes the switch

Chasing a modest target of 158 in the 40 over-a-side tournament,Sangwan,who played for KKR in the IPL,blitzed an unbeaten 52-ball 115 to take his side to victory in just 15.2 overs at Modern School,Barakhamba Road.

The 21-year-old smashed 12 fours and 9 sixes over the course of his innings. But Sangwan himself didn’t think too much of this feat. “It’s not like I haven’t ever made a contribution as a batsman,” says Sangwan who won the man-of-the-match-award. “I made my highest score of 170 in club cricket last year and I often come out to bat as a nightwatchman in the Ranji matches. In fact,I have been working a lot on my batting for the last two years. So after we had restricted them to a low score,I was confident of finishing off the match early,” he said.

Perhaps he just wanted to get some rest ahead of his next encounter in the tournament. Sangwan had reached the city only on late Tuesday night after returning from Kolkata where a massive victory parade had been thrown in honour of KKR’s triumph.

On Wednesday morning,he says didn’t even have time to pack neutral cricketing gear and so turned up with his gold KKR helmet. Sangwan,however,says there was no way that he would have missed the celebrations.

“Even after I had returned with the U-19 World Cup winning team,I was part of an open bus celebration but not on this scale. It was the first time that I had seen over two lakh people cheering together,” he says.

However,Sangwan says he is disappointed that he couldn’t take part in more than the one game in IPL V.

“Of course,I would have wanted to play more matches but the fact is that the team was very well balanced. But Lakshmipathy Balaji was playing as the Indian seamer and he bowled superbly throughout the tournament. Still I have played some 34 IPL matches till now and I am confident that I will be playing several more in the future,” he said.

However,being part of the KKR dug out was also a learning experience for the medium-pacer.

“This season I also got to spend a lot more time with the senior pacers in the side. This time I got the chance to interact with Wasim Akram and Brett Lee a lot more. I also decided to spend as much time as possible in the nets while facing the bowling machine. I guess that helped me out today,” he said.

Bowling,main role

Despite his batting success he insists that his main focus will be on his bowling. Even in that regard he had a good day returning figures of 2/21 earlier in RR Gymkhana’s innings. Sangwan is now keen to carry on his new found form into the rest of the hot weather season.

“Now that the IPL is over,I have nearly one-and-a half months of time on my hands. I will be playing as much club cricket as possible and while I won’t get a hundred every time,I want to contribute as much as possible to the team,” he says.

Brief Scores: RR Gymkhana 157 all out in 37.3 overs (Avinash Gange 61,Jatin Dalal 45,Saurabh Passi 17,Varun Anand 5/25,Pradeep Sangwan 2/21,Rohit Saini 2/15,Vision Panchal 1/28); Sporting Cricket Club 161 for 1 in 15.2 overs (Pradeep Sangwan not out 115,Umang Sharma not out 31)