Mumbai Indians’ decision to not send Ishan Kishan, who was striking the ball hard and clean, to bat in the Super Over surprised many but their head coach Mahela Jayawardane defended the tactic saying they had faith in their experienced players to do the job.
It was wicket-keeper batsman Ishan Kishan, who with his blistering knock of 99 runs brought Mumbai Indians back in a stiff 202-run chase along with Kieron Pollard (60).
However, the match had to be decided via Super Over, where the defending champions opted to send Hardik Pandya with Pollard ahead of Kishan.
The strategy backfired as all they could manage was only seven runs off Navdeep Saini and lost the match to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
As surprising as it was not to see Kishan getting another go, MI skipper Rohit explained the reason behind holding the batsman back.
“He (Kishan) was drained out and was not comfortable. We thought we could send him but he was not feeling fresh. I mean seven runs you need to have luck on your side, we had to get wickets but there was also an unfortunate boundary. There are a lot of positives to take away from this game,” Rohit said after the match.
In the post-match press conference, MI head coach Jayawardene said: “If anyone could see, he (Kishan) was very tired at that moment and we were thinking that we probably need a couple of fresh guys who can go and hit the ball,”
“It is quite easy to say in hindsight this and that, but Polly (Pollard) and Hardik had done the job in the past in those Super Overs, two experienced guys who are capable of doing that.
“So you take a chance on these calls and it could have gone either way. If we had 10-12 runs anything could have happened,” explained the coach.
(With inputs from PTI)
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