IPL 2021: Rohit lauds Hardik after Mumbai Indians’ win vs Punjab Kings

Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma after his side’s win against the Punjab Kings on Tuesday lauded Hardik Pandya for his unbeaten 40-run knock. He also added that it is important ‘not to lose guard’ to qualify for the IPL playoffs. 

The defending champions, Mumbai, defeated KL Rahul’s Punjab Kings by six wickets. Pandya scored 40 runs off 30 balls and Saurabh Tiwari played a 45-run hand to guide Mumbai to two points after three back-to-back defeats. The five-time IPL winners are now back in play-off contentions with 10 points from 11 games.

Sharma, in the post match ceremony, admitted that his team didn’t play to their potential in the first three games on resumption while his Punjab Kings opposite number KL Rahul had no hesitation in admitting that his team is not handling pressure situations well enough.

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“We do agree that we didn’t play to our potential, but it’s a long tournament and we need to stick to our plans and reading the situations is very important and we can take a lot of confidence from that. It is important not to lose the guard,” the Mumbai skipper said. 

“The way he (Hardik) understood the situation was very crucial from a team’s perspective, it’s important for him to spend the time in the middle as he’s coming back from a injury,” he added. 

Rahul, on his part, seemed disappointed when asked about whether his young team is unable to cope up with pressure situations.

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“It is what it is, we haven’t been able to handle the pressure. We’ll learn more if we play more together as a team,” Rahul said.

“We need to be positive. We have three games, so we need to take one game at a time. We need to go out there and enjoy ourselves. All our games in the UAE have gone down to the wire, hopefully we can build on that.” He also accepted that 135 was not a defendable target on this track.

“It was a great fight, but 135 was not enough on this pitch.

“We should have got about 170. The boys showed a lot of fight with the ball, we have done that two games in a row. The next three games will be interesting for us as the table looks interesting,” Rahul said.

Rohit said that it was a tough call to drop someone like Ishan Kishan but the team will back him as he tried to get back to form.

“It’s a tough call (on dropping Ishan Kishan). Saurabh (Tiwary) has played the perfect role today and he’s done well to nudge around in the middle overs. We are gonna back him (Ishan Kishan) as he’s a very important player for us.”