"Captain, coach gave me licence to play fearless cricket": Nitish Kumar Reddy

India`s Nitish Kumar Reddy bowls a delivery during the second T20 International cricket match between India and Bangladesh at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, in New Delhi. Pic/PTI

Nitish Kumar Reddy who delivered performances both with the willow and ball in the second T20I credited his team for giving him the license to play fearlessly.

Nitish Kumar Reddy smashed a glorious 74 runs off just 34 deliveries. Following his and Rinku Singh's knock, Team India posted a total of 221 runs for the loss of nine wickets.

While chasing, Bangladesh managed to reach the score of only 135 runs by losing nine wickets. Following this, Team India sealed the series win by 2-0 with one match left to be played.

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"It feels great to represent India, feel so proud about this moment. Grateful for everything. I should give credit to captain and coach. They gave me the licence to play fearless cricket," Reddy said at the post-match interaction. Reddy got two reprieves early on but grew in confidence after hitting a six off a free-hit thanks to a no-ball by Mahmudullah. "I took my time initially, but after that no-ball everything went in my favour. It feels great to play for the Indian team. I want to continue in this same way. Want to keep repeat such good performances."

India got off to a jittery start and were reeling at 41/3 inside power-play and skipper Suryakumar Yadav said it helped them test their middle-order batters. "I wanted that situation, wanted my batters (5,6,7) in that situation. Happy for both (Rinku Singh and Nitish) of them," Yadav said on the 108-run fourth wicket partnership between Rinku (53) and Nitish.

"They batted exactly the way I wanted. You got to go out there and express. The message has been loud and clear - do what you do in the nets, and franchises. Just the jersey changes, rest remaining remains the same. "I wanted to see what different bowlers can do in different situations. Can they give me the difficult overs. Sometimes Hardik won't bowl, sometimes Washington Sundar won't bowl. I wanted to see what the other guys had in store, really happy with it. It was his (Nitish) day, I thought let him enjoy and make it large."

(With PTI Inputs)