Krunal Pandya played some extremely good shots: Martin Guptill

Martin Guptill of Mumbai Indians (MI) has just featured in two matches in this season of the IPL, which is his first ever IPL season for the defending champions.

In his first appearance against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the start of the season, he scored just 2 runs and did’t get any more opportunities until he was called up for the must-win game against Delhi Daredevils (DD) on Sunday.

The attacking opening batsman from New Zealand grabbed the opportunity with both hands and played an anchoring innings of 48, which helped his side put up a huge total of 206 runs.

In a recent interview, Guptill talked about the opportunity – “It’s my second game of the tournament, I’ve been sitting on the sidelines for most of the time. It’s tough but we’ve played enough cricket to know that we have to sit out for a few games. You’ve still got to prepare and we did that, luckily for us, it came off.”

He had a great partnership with Krunal Pandya, who scored a 37-ball 86. Speaking about the match-winning partnership, Guptill said- “I did have the best seat in the house, he played some extremely good shots and hit the ball extremely well so being out there I was able to see it up close and personal and luckily I didn’t have to run too many and get more tired than I already was.”

The Kiwi had opened the innings along with the Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma and he praised Rohit and called his captain a “world-class” player. Guptill said, “Obviously Rohit is a world-class player and he makes it look so easy, just how easily he hits the ball and some of the shots he plays are pretty amazing. Hopefully, I can keep my place in the team for the next game and watch him a bit more.”

Mumbai Indians have got a lot of New Zealand current and former players in their squad and in the support staff team, which has helped Martin Guptill to settle in quickly with the team.

“It is a little like being at home obviously, playing a lot with Tim and Corey and a bit with Bondy as well, he obviously coached New Zealand a bit and hence we share a strong bond. Having a few other guys in the team that you know well helped me settle in quite quickly and become a part of the team,” Guptill concluded.

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