Purple Cap holder Rashid warns opponents, says more to come

Hyderabad, April 9 (IANS) Sunrisers Hyderabad leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who bagged the purple cap for taking most number of wickets so far in this edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), on Sunday said he will try to top the list till the end of the Twenty20 cricket tournament.

The Afghan teenager, who returned with figures of 3/19 against Gujarat Lions, has taken five wickets in two matches, thus becoming the leading wicket-taker.

"It's a wonderful moment for me to take this purple cap. Hopefully I'll try to keep this with me right till the end," said Rashid, who is featuring in his maiden IPL.

Commenting on his bowling, Rashid, who bamboozled Gujarat's top order said: "The way I'm bowling, it's quite difficult for the batsmen to pick it. This is a tough track to bat on if you bowl wicket-to-wicket. I'm enjoying the experience here. I always try to bowl dots and build pressure on the batsmen.

"Happy to be a part of the Sunrisers. The coach and the captain asked me to bowl whenever I'm comfortable. I told them I'm happy to bowl at any stage. I thought batsmen weren't going to read my googlies and tried it, and it worked," Rashid said after the match.

Rashid was picked up by Hyderabad for Rs 4 crore in the auctions held in February. It seems, so far, the 18-year-old is turning out to be the surprise of the tournament.

Apart from the Afghan spinner, pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar took two wickets while veteran pacer Ashish Nehra chipped in with one wicket to restrict Gujarat to 135/7.