The Pandya brothers – Hardik and Krunal – are in the middle of an extraordinary season with Mumbai Indians’ win. Two-time champions Mumbai Indians knocked out Kolkata Knight Riders in Qualifier 2 last night to secure a final’s berth against Rising Pune Supergiant. The sibling duo played a noteworthy role.
Younger one Hardik, as usual, impressed with his top – notch fielding abilities and bowling performances, elder one Krunal contributed with a vital knock to take Mumbai Indian home safely.
At the end of the match at M Chinnaswamy, the Pandyas, who have become a household name thanks to their exceptional show in the IPL, were involved in some brotherly banter.
“Generally, I have the most number of not outs here. I got nine or something. So, how does it feels when you finish the game and remain not out?,” Hardik asked Krunal in an interview for iplt20.com.
Krunal was quick to reply, “Just for your kind information, I have also finished three to four games. So you are not the only one (who can finish games).”
After opting to bowl first, MI bundled out KKR for just 107 thanks to leg-spinner Karn Sharma (4/16) and Jasprit Bumrah (3/7) which picked their best T20 bowling figures on the same day, sharing seven wickets between them. Pandya bowled tad expensively but grabbed two catches while fielding.
Krunal praised the bowlers who were instrumental in Mumbai’s win.
“All the credit goes to the bowlers. They bowled really well to restrict KKR to 107 runs which were amazing and then when I went to bat, we needed run-a-ball but the wicket was on the tougher side. So I just made sure that I just keep the score ticking and play till the end,” Krunal said.
“The way we started, the way we executed our plans, it was simply amazing. You also bowled an amazing over. It was a good team effort. All the bowlers bowled really well. Karn, Bumrah, everyone chipped in. In batting also, it was just to be there and play out the whole overs and we chased it,” he added.
The chase began on a tricky note for Mumbai Indians as they faced a small top order failure. However, Krunal led the charge on his own and ended up top-scoring with an unbeaten 45 off 30 balls to take Mumbai past the target with six wickets in hand.
Sunday night will be a special occasion for the Pandya household. Last year, Krunal and Hardik had become the first sibling duo to represent the same team in the IPL and are now set to become the first sibling duo to play in an IPL final.
Hardik looked optimistic ahead of the final.
“The brand of cricket we have played, we deserved to be in the final.”
Krunal spoke with more conservative tone, stating that the team would hope to execute their plans perfectly for one last time.
“Great feeling to be in the final. For us, you know that it was our dream to play at the good level and it is such an honour for us to play for Mumbai Indians. We just want to execute our plans in the final,” he said.