Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer Aniket Choudhary on Monday that it was AB de Villiers who had asked him to bowl a short ball at Hardik Pandya in their match at the Wankhede Stadium against Mumbai Indians.

Mumbai needed 24 off 13 balls then and Choudhary had bowled a good over till then. However, Pandya smashed his last ball, a length ball on his body, for a six over deep square leg. That made thing easier and Mumbai ultimately won by five wickets.

“I was wondering whether to bowl him (Hardik) the slower one or the fast one. Maybe it was a match-changing point,” Choudhary told Times of India. “So, I went to him (De Villiers) and asked: ‘What should I bowl?’ ‘Maybe he ready for the slower one, so I think you should go with the hard length,’ he said.

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“And when someone as great as AB tells you do to something, such a world class player and if he is giving you a suggestion, it’s very hard to go against it.”

But of course, that plan did not work out and it did not leave Choudhary’s captain, Virat Kohli, very happy.

“And I thought he is right. And Virat wasn’t happy with what I bowled. He thought I did the wrong thing and I should have bowled full and slow,” admitted the 27-year-old left armer.

He added, “I think if we had bowled more slower balls, we could have stopped them from getting the target. It was a decent wicket, but we bowled a few bad balls here and there. As I said, we should have more of the slower stuff.”

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However, Choudhary pointed out that his experience in the Indian Premier League will put him in great stead for the future.

“It was a very good experience. If you are bowling to top Indian batsmen and getting them out, that’s where I got noticed by Virat,” said the pacer.

He added, “Once you bowl to the best and get them out, I don’t think there’s a better way of gaining confidence than that. After that, whichever domestic competition you go, like when I played the Ranji Trophy, I was very confident. It appeared a lot easier then.”