Pressure situations bring the best out of Gurkeerat

Gurkeerat Singh did the star turn as India 'A' beat Bangladesh 'A' by 96 runs in the first One-dayer of the three-match series in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

He first bailed the home side out of a troublesome situation with a fluent half-century, after the top-order was back in the hut, and then ran through the tail, picking the last five wickets.

Looking back on his brilliant effort, he said he always thrives under pressure.

"Actually, I am trying to build my place in the batting order. I am used to batting at No 5 or 6 for Punjab, so I am enjoying it.

"I need to bat in pressure situations. I feel that I thrive in these situations," said Gurkeerat, at the post-match media conference.

The 25-year-old added he is looking to maintain his good showing the next to two matches of the series.

"I have been batting well and want to continue batting well. I had an injury before this game. I had a split webbing playing district games (Katoch Shield) after the tri-series (between the A teams of Australia, South Africa and India) final. I was a bit worried about how it will figure out but, thankfully, everything went well."

Last month, Gurkeerat came up with a superb all-round showing as India 'A' beat fancied Australia 'A' by four wickets in the final of the tri-series, scoring an unbeaten 87 and taking two wickets.

Bangladesh 'A' coach Heath Streak blamed his team's poor bowling as the reason for defeat.

"Probably it was about leaking too many runs with the ball that cost us. Too many extras and boundary in latter part. This was a good batting wicket. We knew that hard to go for less than six an over after 20 overs.

"Our target to restrict them in first 20 overs so that they struggle to capitalise at the end. We got wickets but we could not contain boundaries," Streak said.