MUMBAI: When Sunil Narine rattled Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma with a peach of a delivery the hosts’ innings was in a mess at 79/4 in 11.4 overs. The big hitting Kieron Pollard was struggling and it seemed Mumbai Indians’ IPL campaign was in serious trouble. But Baroda’s young sensation Hardik Pandya struck an unbeaten 61 in 31 balls to revive the hosts’ fortunes by enabling them to post 171/4 on the board.
He started cautiously before taking off with four boundaries off Umesh Yadav in the 17th over. Pandya then launched Narine over wide long on for a classy six and hit Andre Russel for two boundaries and a six in the penultimate over. In the last five overs MI made 72 runs of which 50 runs came from Pandya’s bat. However, Pandya who was an unknown entity before his matching winning 21 against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk was humble to admit that Pollard’s last over in which he gave just six runs over shadowed his whirlwind knock.
“It must be Pollard’s bowling. This last over was more important than my innings as the entire match’s result was on this over. Yusuf (Pathan) was playing and was on strike. He got him out first ball and then did not allow them to score,” Pandya said in the post-match presser. Pandya admitted he loved the role of being aggressor as Pollard (33 not out off 38 balls) surprisingly played the sheet anchors role.
“Pollard needed to stay till the end and that’s why I had to take charge and I started playing my shots. Ours was a match winning partnership (92 runs). I always play like this, that’s my natural game and that’s the way I have played throughout my career,” he added. This was Pandya’s first IPL half century. “I was just focusing on what I can contribute as an individual for the team. I am trying to do as well as I can in bowling, it will come,” said Pandya.
