“Kind of knew what he was going to try against me” - Abhinav Manohar on battle with “good friend” Chahal in RR vs GT IPL 2022 match

Gujarat Titans (GT) batter Abhinav Manohar has stated that he had a fair idea of how Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal will bowl against him in the IPL 2022 match on Thursday. Describing Chahal as a "good friend," the 27-year-old revealed that they had been discussing their one-on-one battle for the last few years.

Manohar scored a breezy 43 off 28 balls against the Royals at the Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Chahal eventually dismissed him, but not before Manohar smacked him for a few big hits.

Opening up about his battle with the RR leg-spinner, Manohar told teammate Yash Dayal during an interaction posted on IPLT20.COM:

“Yuzi (Chahal) has been a good friend of mine since the past 5-6 years. We’ve always been talking that one day I will get to face him in the IPL, and that day was today (Thursday). It felt good to face him. I kind of knew what he was going to try against me. I played my shots and it worked in my favor.”

Manohar has done a good job for GT in the middle order in IPL 2022 so far. Prior to his knock against RR, he scored an impressive 35 off 21 balls against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

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“There’s a lot to learn from him” - Abhinav Manohar on batting with Hardik Pandya

Manohar, who represents Karnataka in domestic cricket, featured in a 86-run stand with Hardik Pandya for the fourth wicket against RR. The partnership lifted Gujarat out of trouble after they had slipped to 53 for three. Sharing his views on batting with the franchise skipper, the right-handed batter said:

“It feels good to bat with Hardik because he is a similar batsman as I am. Even he is a hard hitter of the ball and that gives me confidence to go out there and express myself. He is always there out in the middle, telling me what to do, how to read the situation better. There’s a lot to learn from him when I am batting out there.”

Stating that sharing the crease with Pandya was a dream come true for him, Manohar concluded:

“I have seen him bat on TV and I have always been a big fan of him and the way he strikes the ball.”

The hard-hitting batter had earlier featured in a 50-run stand with Pandya against SRH as well. GT, however, went on to lose that game by eight wickets.

Following the win over the Royals, the Titans now occupy the top spot in the IPL 2022 standings with eight points from five games.