IPL 2021: Credit to the entire MI team for hanging in there - Trent Boult
Mumbai Indians (MI)'s left-arm pacer Trent Boult has attributed the team’s victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Saturday to a fabulous team effort.
In another tense encounter in IPL 2021, MI beat SRH by 13 runs in Chennai. After posting 150 for 5 on the board batting first, MI cleaned up SRH for 137.
Asked if he felt whether any performance in the match was a game-changer, Boult responded that there were multiple significant contributions. He said in this regard:
“It’s hard to pin-point one performance there. A lot of credit to the whole side for hanging in there. We knew we were a few runs short of the par score. But we also knew that this is a pitch where you can fight. And you get a couple of wickets, you can really get back in the chase. I thought the couple of direct hits from Hardik (Pandya) and the three wickets from Rahul (Chahar) were important when we were bowling. And then Bumrah there, bowling his four overs for only 14 was pretty amazing".
MI leg-spinner Chahar dismissed Manish Pandey, Virat Singh and Abhishek Sharma in quick succession to keep his team ahead in the chase. Hardik ran out David Warner and Abdul Samad, while Trent Boult returned to claim three wickets at the death.
As a result, from 71 for 1, SRH crumbled to 137 all out to fall short by 13 runs.
Pitch is getting slower and slower: MI captain Rohit Sharma
After the win, MI captain Rohit Sharma said that the Chennai surface is a really challenging one in terms of chasing, owing to its slow nature.
Asked to analyse the surface at the post-match conference, Rohit Sharma observed:
"I think (chasing is difficult) because of the pitch getting slower and slower. You can see when Rahul (Chahar) was bowling, he was turning the ball even in his fourth over, which was, I think, the 13th or the 14th over, which is not the case when you play in Mumbai. Bowlers are always in the game till the 20th over, and even the seamers, it is not easy to just get away from them. In a few games, the ball was reversing as well, and the slowness of the pitch makes it harder for the batters to just come and slog straightaway".
With two wins in three games, Mumbai Indians next take on Delhi Capitals in Chennai on April 20.