Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya doffed his hat to Vaibhav Suryavanshi after they suffered a 27-run loss against Rajasthan Royals at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati on Tuesday. Suryavanshi smashed MI’s ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah for a first-ball six and took MI bowlers to the cleaners in the rain-curtailed game.
The 15-year-old scored a blistering knock of 39 runs off just 14 balls with the help of one four and five sixes. The youngster scored his runs at a whirlwind strike rate of 278.57. Suryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal added 80 runs off just 30 balls for the opening alliance and played a key role in helping RR post 150 runs on the board in 11 overs.
Hardik Pandya said in the post-match presentation, “It’s quite fascinating to see a 17 or a 16-year-old boy and playing the way he played. At the same point of time, discussing so much about him in the preparation leading up to the game. So yeah, amazing to see the way he bats, the kind of fearlessness he has, the kind of shots he has. I wish him absolute good luck in the future.”
Pandya, who returned to the playing XI after missing the last game due to illness, admitted his bowlers could not execute their plans against RR.
The MI skipper added, “I think we didn’t execute the deliveries which we were supposed to and they played well. Our bowlers need to take the responsibility. As a bowling group, we were not at all up to the mark and they played tremendous cricket.”
He continued, “I would not put this game on the batting. This was definitely the bowling unit which had to take responsibility. It’s T20 cricket, it’s about always bowling those right couple of balls. And if you see 27, that means we are talking about five good balls and five less sixes. So if we would have executed the right balls, yeah, we would have been in the game. But as I said, their openers kind of enforced couple of overs, threw us out of the game. Then throughout we were catching up and yeah, we fell short.”
Mumbai Indians will next take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, on Sunday.
