"I felt he didn’t really press gas at the right time" - Brian Lara on Kieron Pollard's tactics in Mumbai Indians defeat
West Indies legend Brian Lara felt that Mumbai Indians skipper Kieron Pollard took his foot off the pedal at the wrong moment and allowed Chennai Super Kings to get back into the match. Lara pointed out that keeping Jasprit Bumrah's three overs for the death might have cost the Mumbai Indians the game.
Chennai Super Kings were 24/4 at the end of the powerplay. Opener Ruturaj Gaikwad, who had weathered the early storm, then went on to build partnerships, initially with Ravindra Jadeja and later with Dwayne Bravo, to guide his side to a fighting total of 156 runs at the end of the 20 overs.
Brian Lara felt that the Super Kings would have been done and dusted early if the Mumbai Indians had got their tactics right.
“They should have been done and dusted by the Mumbai Indians. There are a few things that Kieron Pollard did out there that I felt he didn’t really press gas at the right time and sort of just came off the pedal and allowed the Chennai Super Kings to get back into the match (…) But I felt that you make it easy, you can’t have Bumrah just bowling one over at that stage,” Brian Lara said while speaking to cricket.com.
The former West Indies batter added that he wouldn’t blame the bowlers for the result. If they had been used more efficiently, Mumbai Indians might have had the better of the Super Kings.
“I can’t blame the Mumbai bowlers, but I just felt that they could have done a little bit better tactically. I think it’s more tactical. You’ve got two spinners that you most likely will have to use at some point in time. I wouldn’t necessarily say the bowlers were bad. I felt if they had used them properly, no way 156 was on the card for Chennai Super Kings.”
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"If the batsmen are well set, they are going to go" - Brian Lara
Brian Lara reminded that if quality batters are there at the death and are set, it will be difficult to contain the scoring even with the best of the bowlers. He lauded the Chennai Super Kings batters for capitalizing on the opportunity against the spinners and then causing destruction at the death.
“I think it was given to them at certain stages and they capitalized and took the spinners to pieces. Then he realized, whoever comes back at the death, if the batsmen are well set, they are going to go. Even Bravo, who wasn’t well set, took apart Trent Boult. It was just mayhem later on,” Brian Lara added.
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The Chennai Super Kings scored 69 runs in the final five overs of the match. The onslaught at the death propelled their total to 156 runs and they ended up winning the match by 20 runs.