Why did Tilak Varma refuse to be single with Tim David? MI skipper Hardik Pandya’s blunt reply | Cricket News

Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya expressed his support for batting after their six-run loss to Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) opener Tilak Varma’s decision not to take a single against Rashid Khan. While it may have cost them the game, Tim David’s offense was strong. MI failed to capitalize on the momentum generated by a 77-run duel between Rohit Sharma and Dewald Brevis and started with a slim lead. A key decision that decided the outcome of the match was when Tilak failed to score a single against Rashid Khan in the 17th over and backed himself to fire at the spinner instead of David.

In his post-match speech, Hardik said: “Obviously we backed ourselves to chase those runs but the score we saw that day was much less than what we had seen in the five overs and I think we lost A little bit of momentum there. It feels good to be back because it’s a stadium that you can enjoy and feel the atmosphere is very lively and obviously the crowd was packed and they played a good game as well. (About Tilak’s performance against Rashid didn’t take a single in the game) I think Tilak felt it was a better idea at the time and I fully support him, it’s not a problem, there are 13 games left.”

Coming to the match site, MI chose to bowl first. Gujarat Titans were largely silenced by Jasprit Bumrah (3/14) and Gerald Coetzee (2/27), And it is difficult to score runs at a good run rate. Sai Sudharsan (45 off 39 balls, including three fours and one six), captain Shubman Gill (31 off 22 balls, including three fours and one six) and Rahul Tewatia (22 off 15 balls) , 2 fours and 1 six) With a useful knock, GT took the score to 168/6 in 20 overs.

Chasing 169 runs, MI did lose Ishan Kishan (0) and Naman Dhir (20 off 10 balls, including 4 and 6) early on, reducing the score to 30/2. However, Rohit Sharma (43 off 29 balls, 7 fours and a six) and Dewald Brevis (38 off 38 balls) A 77-run stand between 46 runs, including two fours and three sixes, brought MI back into the game. In the death overs, pacers Spencer Johnson (2/25), Mohit Sharma (2/32) and Umesh Yadav (2/31) performed well to keep MI trailing by 6 runs. Hardik Pandya scored just 11 runs off four balls in his return for MI.

Sai Sudarshan won the ‘Man of the Match’ award.