Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai Indians (MI) captain, has explained why Ishan Kishan, who played a magnificent 99-run knock, wasn’t sent out to bat in the super over in their IPL 2020 encounter against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Mumbai’s chase of 202 didn’t get off to the best of starts. At 78-4 in the 12th over, they were meandering their way to a second defeat in the season. Kishan and Kieron Pollard. however, added 119 runs in the next 51 deliveries to take MI to the cusp of an improbable victory.
But the 22-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman was caught in deep for 99 on the penultimate delivery of the chase before Pollard struck a boundary on the final ball to tie the scores. The super over, however, wasn’t nearly as interesting as the 40 overs of play that preceded it.
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MI sent out Pollard and Hardik Pandya but Navdeep Saini’s discipline with the ball kept them down to seven runs which the pair of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers chased down with ease.
Navdeep Saini in the super over: 1 1 0 4 W 1bye
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) September 28, 2020
The point of discussion though was why Mumbai didn’t send out Kishan in the super over, considering he had batted for almost 18 overs and was the top-scorer of the match. Rohit explained why the India youngster wasn’t sent out.
“[Kishan] was drained out and he was not comfortable for the super over,” he said after the narrow defeat. “He was not feeling fresh and Hardik is someone we trust hitting the long balls. It’s not coming off but we’re confident. Seven runs, you have to have luck on your side and get a wicket in the first two balls. And that unfortunate edge over fine leg made it two in two for them.”
Should #MI have sent Ishan Kishan for the super over?#IPL2020 #RCBvsMI pic.twitter.com/IQaOPTxGz7
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) September 28, 2020
Rohit praised the pair of Kishan and Pollard and getting them back into the game. “It was a great game,” Rohit added. “We were not in the game at all when we started with the bat. Great innings by Ishan to get us back. Polly was brilliant as usual. Just that we didn’t start well, I thought we could have got 200 with the batting we have. With Polly being there, anything can happen, and Ishan can hit it. We had the belief that we could do it. They held their nerves although we put pressure.”
