IPL 2023, MI vs RCB | Who said what ft. Suryakumar Yadav, Nehal Wadhera
Mumbai Indians scripted their sixth win of IPL 2023 beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets and occupied the third place on the points table. Suryakumar Yadav stated after the win that the open net sessions helped him score runs while Nehal Wadhera praised Suryakumar for his exploit.
In a contest where batters were running the show, Mumbai Indians outplayed Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets. MI won the toss and opted to bowl against the visitors but Faf du Plessis soon started breaking the shackles of the hosts’ bowling unit. He along with Maxwell formed a 120-run partnership for the third wicket setting up a platform for a good finish. The South African batter scored 65 runs while Maxwell produced an explosive 68 from 33 deliveries. RCB posted 199/6 in the end posing a tough challenger for the hosts,
MI had an explosive start thanks to Ishan Kishan’s quickfire 42 but they were soon reduced to 52/2 from five overs. Suryakumar Yadav and Nehal Wadhera took the responsibility on their shoulder after that and inked a 140-run partnership. Suryakumar was in full flow knocking 83 runs from just 35 balls while Wadhera stayed at the crease till the end with a knock of unbeaten 52 runs. The opposition bowlers were blown away with the attack enforced on them by the duo and the team won by six wickets and 21 balls to spare.Â
Suyrakumar revealed after the game that the opposition bowlers tried to make him to play to the bigger part of the ground while bowling slower deliveries but having open net sessions in practice helped him tackle the situation.Â
Much needed from team's point of view. I am very happy to win a home game like this. I mean they come up with a plan. They tried to make me hit to the bigger part. Take the pace off and bowl slow. I said Nehal let's hit it hard and hit it into the gaps and run hard. Your practice has to be the same what you intend to do in matches. I know where my runs are. We have open net sessions. I know my game. I don't do anything different.
Nehal Wadhera expressed his joy on the team’s victory and also stated that Suryakumar kept motivating him from the other end.Â
It was fun batting up the order, earlier I was batting down. I got an opportunity to bat up and I got back-to-back fifties. I am happy with my fifty but I am more happy that my team won and I hope we continue to do so. I have the confidence within me that if I keep on batting till the end, I can finish the game for the team. Surya bhai is a top-class player and I also try to copy some of his shots but I cannot. While he was batting I was talking to him and he was saying 'keep playing, keep playing' and he was giving me confidence.
MI skipper Rohit Sharma praised the bowling unit for restring the opposition below 200.Â
It is a good pitch. If you apply yourselves, you can get runs. Those four guys played well. Akash was with us last year as well. We saw the skillset. We wanted to give him a role. He is quite confident. He leads his Uttarakhand team. He knows what field he needs. We restricted them to less than 200. Was a great effort, It could have been 220 or more. I have no idea what a safe score is. The last four games we have seen excess of 200 has been scored.
Faf du Plessis pointed out that the visitors were at least 20 runs shot from setting up a winning total.Â
I think we were at least 20 runs short, in context of the wicket. They are a strong chasing team and they bat deep. We didn't capitalise in the last five overs, disappointed due to the lack of runs in those five overs. You need to say 200 is a good score (to motivate the players), needed to make sure you take the pace off. They capitalized the first 6 overs with the pace on. He (SKY) is one of the best, when he gets going, it's difficult to shut him down.
Jason Behrendorff opined that taking wickets at the back end helped MI restrict the opposition’s flow of runs.Â
I think the partnership was about 100 or 50 balls at one stage. So, we really needed to, to break that partnership. We had a few different plans, a few things nearly worked and then yeah, we were able to sort of crack through it at the back end, which gave us a really good opportunity to dry them up towards the end of the innings.If we can take wickets at regular intervals and it stems the flow of the batters and gain, like we were able to take consistent wickets throughout the innings, which helped after that big partnership.