India batter and East Zone captain Ishan Kishan believes the pressure of big matches brings out the best in him, as he reflected on his monumental 270 in the Duleep Trophy final against South Zone at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Kishan produced one of the finest knocks in Duleep Trophy history, smashing 270 off 334 balls with 30 fours and seven sixes to help East Zone post a mammoth 708 in their first innings. Speaking in a BCCI video ahead of the start of Day 3, Kishan said he thrives in situations where the stakes are high and pressure is mounting. Because when you’re batting, you’re a little nervous, but at the same time, you’re aggressive too, and I feel that in that pressure, my best game comes,.
Whenever I’m in such situations, I enjoy it a lot,” Kishan said. His knock is the eighth-highest individual score in the history of the competition. “I think when it’s a big match, there’s a kind of pressure. You’re watching; if you get the ball, you’ll hit it. So I think it’s a very good mixture of calm and being aggressive. So it works a lot for me when there are such stages, where either the wickets have fallen early.
Kishan’s Strategic Approach Fuels East Zone’s Dominance
Ishan Kishan’s marathon innings showcased a strategy focused on patience and adapting to the game’s demands rather than pursuing personal milestones. He emphasized the importance of breaking the team’s target into manageable goals while batting.
“Rather than thinking about your own batting, you have your team goal. What will benefit the team? So when you move forward according to that, your batting becomes very good. If the total has reached 400 now, let’s do 450 first. Then let’s do 450 to 500. So, you know, this is a process that you go through,” Kishan explained.
Kishan also noted the physical challenges he faced during his innings, particularly the difficulty of hitting boundaries. “It’s very difficult. You have to put in a lot of effort to hit shots. The boundary on one side was very big. The ball was getting soft in between. So you had to put in a lot of effort for the boundary,” he said.
East Zone’s impressive total has positioned them strongly in the final, presenting South Zone with a significant challenge against a team led by their inspirational captain.
