Mumbai Indians by the virtue of another comfortable win against Sunrisers Hyderabad, sit at the top of the points table in the Indian Premier League (IPL), at least for now.
Before the tournament, Mumbai looked one of the stronger sides in this IPL with all the basis covered and one of the big reasons for that strength was and is proving to be is its trio of Kieron Pollard, Hardik and Krunal Pandya in the middle-order. And, Pollard thinks the same, as according to him, those three are the engine-room of Mumbai’s batting line-up.
“We look at us (him and the Pandya brothers) as the engine-room in the car, without the engine you can’t move. We need to go there, put the speed on and up the run rate, some days it will happen some days it won't but when it gets off we have to make sure we make it count,” said Pollard said during the mid-innings break of the SRH game, on the role of the three guys.
Pollard, who has been coming off from a scintillating form from the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) where he was the Player of the Tournament, has continued his belligerent hitting and found able allies in the Pandya brothers.
In the last three matches especially, this ‘Engine-room’ has really amped up the speed of its car, ie, Mumbai Indians’ innings. In the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Pollard came in to bat in the 12th over, when MI required 124 runs off 52 balls and he hit 60 runs off just 24 balls (striking at 250.00) and almost won the game for his side, which RCB won in the super over.
A similar script followed in MI’s game against Kings XI Punjab in Abu Dhabi on 1 October. After losing Rohit Sharma on the first ball of the 17th over, Hardik Pandya joined Pollard at the score of 124-4. In 23 balls, those two smashed 67 runs to take their team’s score to 191-4. Pollard ended up with 47* (20) and Hardik with 30* (11), with strike rates of 235 and 272 respectively.
And on Sunday afternoon, all the three members of that engine room got a chance to show their prowess. Hardik Pandya 28 (19), Pollard 25* (13) and Krunal Pandya 20* (4) amassed a cumulative of 73 runs off 36 balls to take MI’s score beyond 200 at the Sharjah Stadium.
Big, explosive hitting is one thing, all teams have certain players in the middle-order to take care of the death overs but consistency in big-hitting is another. Pollard mentioned that some days it won’t come off but they have to make it count when it does. And, fortunately for Mumbai, they have been coming off more often than not and there are three, if one doesn’t do, the other two will ensure that it gets done.
Skipper Rohit Sharma also agreed to the fact that having three big-hitters in the line-up coming one after another is a luxury.
“It’s a great headache to have three power hitters towards the end but being in form is the most important thing. Krunal hasn’t batted much in the tournament but today he proved what a great opportunity it was, 20 runs off four balls and I thought towards the end it was important to get past 200.”Rohit Sharma on MI’s big-three, Skipper, Mumbai Indians
When asked about deciding on who should go to bat between Pollard and Pandya brothers, Sharma said that the decision depends on the game, how the match ups are from the opposition, which spinners are bowling, the situation of the game and so on.
After scoring 208, Mumbai’s pacers came to the fore and restricted the Sunrisers Hyderabad to 174-7 and won the game easily by 34 runs.
Mumbai Indians will next play the Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday, 6 October, at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
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