Sheer hard work keeps me going, says Ashish Nehra

Veteran Indian seamer Ashish Nehra on Saturday said he did not have a magic wand but had to work hard with determination in an injury-prone career to be able to compete at the highest level for so long.

"If I can do fast bowling at 38 despite having 11-12 surgeries, then I'm sure anyone can do this. It's no rocket science or magic. You have to push yourself and show determination," Nehra said at the post-match conference after his side Sunrisers Hyderabad lost to Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL match here.

"Especially in this format when you travel every day and play matches. At my age, I've to spend extra time in gym or pool for extra two-three hours for recovery. If you can manage to do all that, then you can also do," said the seamer from Delhi who is approaching 38 but still going strong.

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Having missed matches for India because of his spate of injuries, Nehra said playing for his franchise in the IPL motivates him.

"I don't think I can have a better motivation than playing for India. We are not playing for India so that thing (playing for a franchise) is motivating me. I missed so much of cricket in the past because of injuries, I will try to play as long as I can."

Opting to bowl, defending champions SRH restricted KKR for 172/6 but they could not chase down the target and fell short by 17 runs. "The spell of Kuldeep (Yadav) and (Sunil) Narine was the turning point. We could have played spin better. We could have chosen among bowlers in a better way," Nehra said.

Chinaman bowler Kuldeep returned with a miserly 1/23, including 12 dot balls, while Narine finished with 1/18 (12 dot balls) to set up KKR's second consecutive victory.     
"On this wicket, pacers with the old ball were easy to bat. Had we not conceded wickets, it would have been a different game altogether," said the veteran bowler. This was SRH's second consecutive away defeat but Nehra said it's early days and there's no need to press the panic button.

"On this wicket, 173 was not a big target. It would have been a matter of two-three big hits. But it's too early in the tournament so there's nothing to panic," said Nehra, who returned with figures of 1/35.

"If Yuvi (Yuvraj) had played 10 more balls, he would have finished the game. He's an explosive batsman everyone knows. He could have scored 30 runs from 10 balls easily. Yuvi and Ben Cutting are two important players. If one has his day we will win."

Nehra also said Bhuvneshwar Kumar is one of the best death ball bowlers in India. "Earlier people used to think he's only a new ball bowler. Between him and Jasprit Bumrah, the two who only play ODIs, Bhuvi has been one of the best death bowlers. He will definitely improve from here onwards. He's a very hardworking guy."

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