MUMBAI: Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya expressed disappointment after losing the fixture against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 clash at the iconic Wankhede Stadium on Monday.
Rajat-led RCB continues to defy narratives and breach fortresses as after beating five-time Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Chepauk after 17 years, they have now beaten five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at Wankhede for the first time in 10 overs, overcoming a scary partnership between Tilak Varma and skipper Hardik Pandya that threatened to chase down 222 runs set by RCB.
“It was a run-fest. The wicket was really good. I was just talking about that to myself that again we fell short with two hits. I don’t have much to say. (Was 221 par or above-par?) The way the wicket was, the bowers didn’t really have much place to hide. It came down to execution. You can stop the batters, but I don’t want to be harsh on the bowlers. It was a tough track; we did not have many options. (No. 3 position) The original skeleton of our team, Naman, was always batting down the order,” Hardik Pandya said in the post-match presentation.
Rohit Sharma played the first three games for the five-time champions in the IPL 2025, scoring 13 (against Chennai Super Kings), 8 (against Gujarat Titans), and 0 (against Kolkata Knight Riders) respectively before missing the franchise’s previous encounter, which was played against Lucknow Sper Giants (LSG) at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
After missing the last game, Rohit played in the 20th clash of the ongoing 18th edition of the cash-rich league as the impact player. He came out to the field in the 15th over of the RCB innings. While opening the innings in this match, he was able to score just 17 runs in just nine balls, which came with the help of two fours and a six and at a whopping strike rate of 188.89.
Speaking about Rohit, the all-rounder explained, “It’s just that in the last game, Ro wasn’t available, so we had to push someone up, and someone like him has the multi-dimensional game where he can come up as well and can play in the death as well. Once Ro was back, we knew that Naman would have to come down. Tilak was fantastic. Last game, a lot of things happened. People said a lot of things about it but people don’t know that he had a very nasty hit the previous day. It was a tactical call, but because of the finger that he had, the coach just felt that it was a better option for someone fresh to come and do it. Today, he was fantastic. In this sort of game, powerplays are very crucial. We were not able to get in the middle, and that put us back in the chase. It comes down to execution in the death – we were not able to play those balls.”
In the end, the 31-year-old player spoke about right-arm seamer Jasprit Bumrah, who was playing his first game of the IPL 2025. He went wicketless in his four overs, giving away 29 runs at an economy of 7.20.
“Having him (Bumrah) makes any team in the world very special. He came in and did his job; we were very happy to have him. In life, never back down, and always see the positive side of it. Go out there, try to play the best cricket of your life and back yourself. We are all backing them, just hope for the result to come our way,” Hardik Pandya concluded. (ANI)
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