Much of the talk on Monday night after Mumbai Indians lost a humdinger of a contest against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dubai was why Ishan Kishan, who had batted splendidly to help tie the IPL 2020 match, did not come out to bat in the super over for Mumbai Indians.
Ishan Kishan's 99 off 58 balls and Kieron Pollard's unbeaten 60 off 24 salvaged a hopeless position for MI and the game ended in a tie. Chasing RCB's 201 for three, Mumbai Indians finished with the same score losing five wickets.
But when it came to the super over, Mumbai Indians, batting first, sent in Pollard and Hardik Pandya to score the runs. Navdeep Saini bowled a good super over. With a combination of low full tosses and yorkers, the lanky pacer restricted Mumbai Indians to just seven runs for the loss of Pandya's wicket.
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Virat Kohli and Player of the Match AB de Villiers, whose 55 not out of 24 balls, showed why he is still a superman, completed the formalities for RCB's second win in IPL 2020.
MI skipper Rohit Sharma defended the decision not to send Ishan Kishan during the super over.
"He was completely drained and did not have the energy to bat. Ishan wasn't feeling fresh. Plus, we know that Hardik Pandya can hit the ball long and Pollard was batting well," Sharma said in a post-match chat. Pandya has not been in his elements in IPL this season.
The Mumbai Indians captain said Royal Challengers Bangalore held their nerves better in a crunch game.
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"Nothing to take away from RCB. They stuck to their plans, although we put them under pressure, they held their nerve more than us. It was a great game of cricket, we were not in the game at all when we started with the bat.
"But great innings by Ishan (Kishan) there to get us back in the game and then Polly (Kieron Pollard) was brilliant as usual," said Sharma.
Sharma said Mumbai Indians' poor start was the reason for the RCB vs MI match going all the way to the super over.
"It is just that we couldn't start well. I thought we could get that 200 with the batting power we had but we could not get the momentum in the first 6-7 overs," said the MI skipper.
