IPL 10: Harbhajan Singh Praises Manish Pandey For The 'Great Knock' 1

Mumbai Indians’ veteran Harbhajan Singh has heaped praise on Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Manish Pandey for his brilliant knock against the Mumbai-based outfit on Sunday (April 9).

After being asked to bat first by Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma, Kolkata Knight Riders were off to a flying start with their openers Gautam Gambhir and Chris Lynn adding 44 runs off only 26 balls. Mumbai’s pace duo – Lasith Malinga and Mitchell McClenaghan- didn’t find their rhythm initially and went for a few runs.

However, the complexion of the innings totally changed when left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya was introduced. The Baroda star struck twice in his very first over, dismissing the in-form Gambhir and Robin Uthappa. The scoring-rate dipped further after Bumrah trapped dangerous Lynn. Yusuf Pathan and Surya Kumar Yadav also failed to contribute much with the bat and the onus was Pandey to guide Kolkata to a good total and he did in style. The Karnataka batsman initially took the time to get settled down but unleashed his wide array of shots in the slog overs. He clobbered 23 runs off the final over bowled by McClenaghan to help Kolkata post an imposing total of 178 for 7. He remained unbeaten on 81 off 47 balls including five fours and as many well-timed sixes.

But his heroic knock went in vain as Mumbai managed to hold on their nerves and win a thriller at the Wankhede. The two-time IPL champions, led by a brilliant half-century by Nitish Rana and a quickfire knock from Hardik Pandya, chased down the total with one ball remaining and opened their account in this edition. Rana scored 50 off only 29 balls while Pandya remained unbeaten on 29 off only 11 balls.

Harbhajan also had a word of praise for the top-performers of his team. The India off-spinner took to Twitter to heap the praise on the youngsters.