Had to go after the spinners: Krunal Pandya

The Mumbai Indians secured a massive victory courtesy of some hard-hitting from Krunal Pandya. The Delhi Daredevils’ ploy of playing five spinners backfired rather miserably as they were taken to the cleaners by the devastating Krunal Pandya.

When asked about how important the presence of Martin Guptill in the middle was, Pandya cited the presence of the Kiwi as very important. He added that the message from the dressing room was direct and he was asked to go after the spinners rightaway.

“Definitely [very important],” Pandya said, of Guptill’s presence during their stand. “When I went in at No. 3, the message was clear – I had to go (after) the spinners. There were two leg spinners and one left-arm spinner. So, in between Martin helped me a lot, (he) was guiding me. We discussed that, ‘you stay back, play through the innings and I will take the charge,” quoted the Mumbai Indians all-rounder.

Pandya further said he had decided to play the role of the aggressor and Guptill was supposed to play the anchor’s role in the middle.

“That was the plan. When I went inside and played a couple of balls, I said, ‘Martin, I will go.’ On that kind of wicket you need one batsman to play till 15-16 overs so you can lay the foundation for the other players. My job was clear that I have to go there and play my shots,” he explained.

When asked about his modus operandi against the spinners, Pandya said: “The ball was gripping, it was not coming that easily on to the bat. When I went and saw… I picked my spot and I knew the ball was not coming on to the bat. The shots which I played off the spinners (were possible because) I was waiting for it and then trying to finish my shot rather than going on straight away.”

Delhi Daredevils skipper Zaheer Khan defended his bowling unit and credited the Mumbai batsman for not allowing the Delhi bowlers settle at any moment in the game. He quipped that the bowling unit has been fantastic for them and this was perhaps one of the bad days at work.

“I think the left-right combination kind of helped them. When someone plays an innings like that, Pandya just put the pressure back on us. The important thing was the partnership in the middle. We were hoping that our spinners would put the brakes on. Our bowling unit right throughout the tournament has been fantastic, this kind of things happen, it was an off-day for the bowling unit. It’s just about regrouping and going ahead, we still have three games to go,” Zaheer said, when asked about the spinners going for plenty.

“(We were looking to) restrict them as early as possible. I felt 150-160 would have been good on this track (to chase). As I said, it’s one of those things when we just couldn’t get going as a unit. You can always go and scrutinise, look what happened, what could have been done and stuff like that. That’s part and parcel of the game. It’s important we focus on what we have been doing, how we’re executing our plans. We will be having our debrief sessions and look at things which we could have done differently,” the Daredevils skipper opined.

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