Mumbai Indians’ Hardik Pandya on Wednesday termed the last seven months the toughest of his life “when I didn’t know what to do”, and dedicated the award-winning performance in the IPL to those who stood by him.
Pandya smashed an eight-ball 25 and then took three wicketsto power MI to a 37-run win over Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai.
“It feels pretty good to help the team to win andcontribute. It’s been seven months that I’ve hardly played games. They weren’teasy and I didn’t know what to do. I’ve just batted and batted. I want toimprove my game every day. It’s a fantastic feeling batting like that andmaking your team win.”
The India all-rounder got embroiled in a controversy afterhis outrage-evoking comments on women in a chat show earlier this year. But hehas overcome that now.
“I was out with injury and then some other controversyhappened. I want to dedicate this Man of the Match to my family and friends,who stood with me in the toughest times.
“Now my only focus is to play IPL and make sure India winsthe World Cup,” Hardik said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni felt many “things wentwrong” for his side.
“We started well, were right on the mark for the first 10-12overs. Then, a few catches were dropped, a few misfields, the death overbowling wasn’t great. We don’t have bowlers who hit the deck, it was slightlytough on them.”Dhoni said he would prefer a one-on-one meeting with his playersrather than a team meeting.
“We do have one-on-one plans, we needed to know where wecould cut-off the boundaries, which batsmen to target, a boundary less or twocould have made a difference to a 10-12 run over or a 7-run over. We needed tobuild some momentum, but we need to know when to plan for those.
“It is a tough thing – this so-called momentum, it doesn’treally matter, a good start from the bowlers will make things tight, once youset the tone, the game goes along in that flow.
“Bravo has an hamstring injury, we don’t have a few players,we already have some injuries, David Willey isn’t there, he has his ownproblems, Lungi Ngidi isn’t with us as well, we will have to look at the pitchand then decide on the right combination,” the former India skipper added.
MI captain Rohit Sharma was delighted with the result.
“We don’t want the headache of winning every game at theback-end of the tournament. It becomes very tough. I thought 170 was a fightingtotal because there was something in the pitch.
“If we knock a few wickets with the new ball, we’ll be in thegame. That’s probably why I can’t find a game-changing moment in this 40overs.”Kieron Pollard called Hardik “phenomenal” and explained his role in thecurrent setup.
“The Pandya boys have been batting well, so being the more experienced guy I have to take the initiative and try to do well whenever I come in.”(Why are you not bowling?) That’s a question you’ll have to ask the skipper. I think as a team we strive on momentum.”(Hardik) is phenomenal. For us it’s just about encouraging him and giving him that opportunity. He practices like that,” Pollard said.