Gujarat Lions' Ishan Kishan regrets throwing away his wicket against Mumbai Indians

Gujarat Lions’ opening batsman Ishan Kishan rued throwing away his wicket in a must-win game against the Mumbai Indians. The youngster top-scored for his side with a 35-ball 48. Despite Brendon McCullum’s early dismissal followed by wickets falling at regular intervals, Kishan took on the MI bowlers to score at a quick rate.

He dealt with the likes of Mitchell McClenaghan bowling at express pace and Lasith Malinga firing in with utmost ease, he rather took them on and hit them for boundaries and hooked a six as well. However, the youngster fell just 2 runs short of his 50, as he played a rash shot against Harbhajan Singh to hole out to Pollard at long-off.

“I should have stayed over there. I shouldn’t have gone for that big shot (which led to his dismissal) as it was Bhajji pa’s (Harbhajan Singh’s) last over. I should have waited for Krunal (Pandya) or someone else (to target). If I had stayed in the middle and scored more runs, we would have posted a total of 170 or 180 runs,” Ishan said after the match.

Without any sizable contributions from their batsmen, the Gujarat Lions could only put up 153 runs on the board. Eventually, they pulled off a nail-biting tie, only to lose in the first Super Over of this season of the IPL to the Mumbai Indians. However, Ishan shared that at the halfway mark, the team believed that they could win the game.

“Actually it was all about belief and we believed that our bowlers will do it this time,” said Kishan. “Our fielding unit did very well as well. In the previous matches you must seen that we were very good on the field. So, we know that we just have to put a good effort on the field and we could do this and that definitely happened in the middle,” the left-handed batsman said.

The Gujarat Lions executed as many as 4 run outs in the second innings. Ravindra Jadeja engineered two of those, while Irfan Pathan and James Faulkner got one each. Ishan who took a brilliant catch in the super over to end MI’s inning credited fielding coach Mohammad Kaif, one of India’s finest fielders, for his efforts to improve the team’s fielding standards.

“I think the way we practice our fielding, it is the most important. It counted a lot in today’s match. When Kaifbhai was playing, he was a superb fielder. So, we practice in the same way as he used to during his playing days. We have very good fielders in (Ravindra) Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, (Aaron) Finch and Suresh Raina,” Kishan concluded.