Mohammed Siraj ’manifested’ success against Gujarat Titans; RCB pacer reveals how he overcame sickness to perform

RCB inflicted a thumping 4-wicket defeat on Gujrat Titans on Saturday after restricting them to 147 runs in their first innings. Mohamed Siraj, who was RCB's pick of the bowlers and was later named player of the match, revealed in a post-match chat that he had been very ill for the past few days and did not think he would be able to play against Gujarat Titans.

Speaking at the post-match ceremony, Siraj said, "I was really ill for the last few days, thought I might not be able to play today but I really wanted to play so it was great that I was able to. Got the success today after practising a lot with the new ball this year. Reminded me of last year," 

“When I woke up in the morning, I thought I wouldn't be able to play and that I should take rest. When I woke up, I manifested what I wanted to do and that's exactly what happened. Not easy to switch between red and white ball cricket. You need to give your 110% every ball here,” the pacer added.

Mohammed Siraj in IPL 2024: 

Mohammed Siraj had struggled to make an impact this season, taking just 8 wickets at an economy rate of 9.26 and a strike rate of 28.50 in 10 games for his team.

However, Siraj, who has also been selected in India's T20 World Cup squad, finally found his groove against Gujarat Titans on Saturday. The 30-year-old pacer took 2 crucial wickets of Shubman Gill and Wridhiman Saha, giving away just 29 runs. Siraj's performance, along with brilliant efforts from other bowlers such as Vyshak Kumar, Cameron Green and Yash Dayal, helped RCB restrict GT to 147 all out, which they chased down with relative ease in the end.

The win over GT lifted RCB to 7th place on the IPL points table and they will next face Punjab Kings on Thursday.