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1 day ago
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Shreyas Iyer of Punjab Kings plays a shot during the qualifier 2 match vs Mumbai Indians at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. (Sportzpics)
Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene said that they knew that Shreyas Iyer (87*) taking his time in the middle was a sign of danger in the Qualifier 2 against the 5-time champions. Iyer started slow but ramped up his innings with a partnership with Nehal Wadhera, guiding Punjab Kings to a thrilling 5-wicket win over MI at Ahmedabad. They will now take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Tuesday in the summit clash with a new IPL winner guaranteed.
“He took his time. He knew they would a bit under pressure, so he was taking his time. We knew that was a danger. As long as we didn’t give him that partnership with Nehal (Wadhera), we would have been able to squeeze through because he would have had to go (out to attack) early, not wait that long.” “He got Nehal to do the bulk of the work at that point, so that shows the experience, and he knew he had to take the game deep and he did. We were trying those options with the wickets, but it just didn’t work for us today,” Jayawardene said after the match.
The former Sri Lanka player also said that his team had a good campaign after their dismal start to the season where they lost 4 of their first 5 matches.
“It was a good campaign for us, the way we started, and how we regrouped as a team and had played some really, really good cricket. We had our opportunities getting to the playoffs and we had a really good game first up (Eliminator) and even today I thought we played some good cricket, except for Kings playing better cricket than us, especially with the bat,” he said.
“We probably left a bit of runs on the park as well with the bat. We lost our way after having that start. It was (losing) back to back wickets probably (which) slowed us down a little bit. But I thought 200 was still a good score in a qualifier… the pressure. We picked up those wickets as well up front and a few mistakes cost us the game and the bowling also, the execution wasn’t up to the standards as well,” he said about Qualifier 2.
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