IPL 2021: Match 17, PBKS vs MI – Who Said What

The 17^th match of the Indian Premier League saw action between Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians. PBKS won the game by nine wickets as MI continued their below-average run in IPL 2021. PBKS won the toss and invited Rohit Sharma and company to show up with the willow first. MI could never set up the tone of a good target and reached merely 131 runs in 20 overs. Skipper Rohit did shine for the team with his 52-ball 63 but turned out to be the lone warrior.

KL Rahul won the player of the match award for yet another stunning show with the bat. Suryakumar Yadav’s cameo of 33 runs pushed the team a bit more but MI couldn’t put big on the board. Ravi Bishnoi and Mohammed Shami picked two wickets each and refused to leak any runs owing to their tight bowling show.

KL Rahul builds game for PBKS again

While looking up the ordinary target, the opening pair of KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal set the fine tone for their team. Rahul played skipper’s innings by smashing 60* off 52 deliveries and was supported well enough by Universe Boss Chris Gayle (43 off 35). Along with the average batting show, MI continued their average show with the ball too as only Rahul Chahal could get a single wicket under his belt.

Losing skipper, Rohit Sharma said:

 Not enough runs. I still feel it is not a bad wicket to bat on. You saw how they batted and won the game by 9 wickets. It is just the application which is missing in our batting. If you get 150-160 on this wicket then you are always in the game, that is something we failed to do in the last two games. You can look at it either way, I thought their bowlers bowled well in the powerplay, Ishan was trying to hit but couldn’t get it and even I was not able to hit. We have batted well in the powerplay but today we failed to do so. Something is missing in our batting line-up, we are not able 20 overs in the fashion we want and something that we have to look at and see what we can do. It was just a tactical thing, we wanted someone who would bat well against the spinners and SKY was the one to do that. But when you play on such a challenging pitch then you have to be ready for all the possibilities. When you try, if it works it looks good and if it doesn’t work then it looks bad, but we always back the decision we make. We are not putting enough effort on the field and when the conditions are tough you need to understand how you need to bat and how you need to bowl.

Winning skipper and player of the match, KL Rahul said:

We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves. Slowly we are coming together as a team. The guys we have backed are slowly coming through. Bishnoi came back today and the way he bowled was brilliant. We had heard that there was a lot of dew here. I felt like that could play a part. The drier ball started to grip, when it turns it gets really hard. It was good of Chris that he got through that period. He knew whom to target. That’s what you get with Chris, not just destructive batting but also experience of playing T20 cricket. He (Bishnoi) unfortunately missed the first few games, he’s worked with Anil bhai, he’s been brave. He held his composure. When I know what target I am chasing, it gets easier to pace the innings. Really happy with the way I finished the innings.