All but out of play-off contention after eighth defeat in 11 games, Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya seemed as if he was groping in the dark for replies to all the unanswered questions hounding the five-time champions in yet another disastrous IPL season. Pandya was handed over the captaincy after the franchise removed national captain Rohit Sharma, something that the fans didn’t really embrace with the colourful Baroda all-rounder being booed every time he entered the pitch. “There are a lot of questions that will take time to answer. But for now, not much to say. Obviously, we couldn’t form partnerships and kept losing wickets. Bowlers did a fantastic job on this track,” Pandya said after his team failed to score 170, losing to KKR at home for the first time in 12 years.
Pandya felt that it was better to bat late evening once dew set in but MI failed to capitalise.
“The wicket got better if I’m not wrong. Dew came in the second innings. Will go through the game and see what we can do better,” he said.
Pandya tried to put up a brave front as he spoke about fighting till the last match.
“You keep fighting, that’s what I keep telling myself. It’s challenging, but you take the challenges.” His opposite number Shreyas Iyer was delighted that his team is on the cusp of a play-off berth.
“We are (knocking at the door) at the moment. Lot of thinking would have gone behind that (had we lost today). Just got to know about the stat (of KKR not winning at Wankhede for 12 years)… ” The “Impact Player” rule did help KKR as Manish Pandey, who came in at the fall of the fifth wicket, contributed 42 priceless runs.
“This Impact Player rule specifically helped us in this game. Manish has being eyeing an opportunity from the first game. We got to a commendable total. I told the boys that if we have got here, we can defend it,” Iyer said.
He was all praise for the performances from spin twins Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine, both of whom returning with identical figures of 2 for 22.
“Spinners were unreal, absolutely spot on in executing their lines and lengths as discussed in team meetings. Kudos to them,” Iyer said.
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