Hardik Pandya's knock made the difference, says Rohit Sharma after close victory over RCB

The Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma on Thursday credited the all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s innings for their victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs. Mumbai Indians had lost their opening fixture against the Delhi Capitals and the win against Kohli’s RCB was definitely a boost. 

Rohit Sharma’s team was struggling at one point in the game when they were at 145 for 5. Earlier even after Rohit gave his team a strong start scoring 48 off 33 balls, wickets at regular intervals slowed down their run rate. The veteran batsman Yuvraj Singh then accelerated the innings with a 12-ball 23-run cameo before Mumbai started losing wickets in quick succession again. 

When Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya also failed to fire, Hardik Pandya came down and hit a score of 32 not out off 14 balls, including 15 runs in the final over bowled by Mohammed Siraj to thrust his team to a bigger competitive total at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. 

Rohit Sharma heaps praise for Pandya

Mumbai was able to restrict the Royal Challengers Bangalore to 181 for 5 in 20 overs. Captain Rohit Sharma was all praise of Hardik Pandya for his knock after the game. He felt that the runs added in the end turned out to be game-changing for the team.

“Hardik Pandya’s runs in the end made the difference in this game. He was wanting to go out there and score some runs. Last game didn’t go well for him. He had the hunger to go out there and do well. He came out and got those crucial runs in the end. I thought he bowled well also in the middle overs.

“Even though he went for a few runs but that is fine, Bangalore is one place where bowlers will go for runs. But he bowled really well,much-improved performance from the last game,” Rohit Sharma said at the post-match press conference. The skipper also went on to say that Hardik’s form bodes well for them going forward in the season.

“He was out for a bit, didn’t play a lot of games. It augurs very well for us if he keeps that form going. He’s a crucial member in the team, is a very flexible batsman also and he is a good bowler also. His form is very important to us,” Rohit further added.

Here’s Mumbai Indians full squad for IPL 2019:

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