MI skipper Hardik Pandya heaped praise on PBKS’ Ashutosh Sharma after the batter almost pulled off an improbable win for his side in Mullanpur on April 18. MI won the match by 9 runs in the end, but Ashutosh continued his fairytale run by scoring 61 off 28 balls to give MI an almighty scare. The Railways batter’s innings consisted of 7 sixes and 2 boundaries as he continued to impress everyone with his batting.
One of the highlights of the night came from Ashutosh when he swept Jasprit Bumrah for a six, which left the fans and commentators stunned. Speaking after the win in Mullanpur, Hardik was quick to praise Ashutosh and said he was unbelievable on the day. The MI skipper said that the PBKS batter knew what he wanted to do early on and claimed that he was really happy for the batter and his future.
“Ashutosh was unbelievable I mean coming in and playing like that and hitting almost every ball from the middle of the bat. He knew the fact what he wanted to do, I am really happy for him,” said Hardik.
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Doesn’t matter how good we look: Hardik reveals timeout message
MI seemed to be in a good position when PBKS were reeling at 14 for 4 at one point. However, Shashank Singh’s 41 and Ashutosh’s knock would prove to be a test of their character, something Hardik alluded to in the post-match presentation. The MI skipper said that everyone’s nerve got tested in the end and the chat in the dressing room was about it as well.
“Yeah I mean, obviously a very good game of cricket. I think everyone’s nerves got tested. We had a chat before this game, that everyone’s character will be tested today,” said Hardik.
The MI skipper said that the message during the last timeout of the match was to see the game through even if they had to scrap at the end. Hardik also said that the team needs to stop bowling soft balls but claimed that he was happy with the win in the end.
“We mentioned in the timeout that it doesn’t matter how good we look. It’s just that we keep scraping and we keep fighting in the game. Yeah, there are quite a few areas, like in the bowling we need to stop bowling soft balls, yeah batters played really well but we bowled a lot of soft balls that led the game to go deep. Nevertheless in the end win is a win!” said Hardik.
MI will now head to Jaipur to take on table-toppers RR in their next match on April 22.