Gambhir points to poor death overs as KKR’s weakness against MI
Dec 23, 2018 at 11:08 AM
In his 100th game for the Mumbai Indians, Kieron Pollard unleashed the beast within himself as the Trinidadian notched up his half century in just 17 deliveries. Pollard finished the game off for Mumbai effortlessly, as his destructive knock included 6 gigantic sixes. Mumbai’s chief architect behind the win, though, was once again skippered Rohit Sharma, who led by example with his unbeaten knock of 68.
The hosts put the Knight Riders into bat and opted to play safe by fielding first. For the Kolkata Knight Riders, Gautam Gambhir once again led the show with his supreme half century. The visitors though lacked the needed panache towards the death overs as they were restricted to 174-5. Mumbai Indians began strongly and thanks to the heroics of Sharma and Pollard, got home comfortably with 12 balls to spare.
Post his side’s loss, Gautam Gambhir pointed out the lack of firepower in the death overs as a major shortcoming for the Knight Riders. “We are not gonna give any excuses and we were probably 15 runs short. Their bowlers did well in the death overs and we couldn’t do that. We needed an innings like Pollard but you need to give credit to the bowlers as well. They restricted us to 172 which is always a chaseable total on this wicket. I’m not someone who gives excuses about dew and et al. We are professional cricketers and we should be doing well with the bat and ball no matter how the conditions are. The toss and dew factor is not in our hands and we need to do well in the rest of the games”, said Gambhir.
Man of the Match Rohit Sharma was full of smiles, as he thanked the Wankhede crowd for all the support and love. “It was a good game, we wanted this win badly. We were pretty determined to win this and we stuck to our plans. We need to go back and understand what we need to do as a team. Pollard’s form is crucial and he is peaking at the right time. I especially want to thank the Mumbai crowd. They have been superb and have always enjoyed good cricket. Unfortunately, it’s our last game here and they have been waiting to see Pollard fire. Glad they got what they wanted,” said Sharma.