Kieron Pollard

Durban: Mumbai Indians Captain Sachin Tendulkar praised Kieron Pollard for ensuring his side’s first win in the Champions League Twenty20, but admitted that poor bowling still remains a concern for the team if they have to go a long way ahead in the tournament.

Riding on Pollard’s destructive 30-ball 72*, which was studded with nine sixes and a boundary, MI defeated Guyana by 31 runs in Group B to register their first win in the tournament and Sachin was quick to admit that the Beast’s Big Bang at the end was the difference between victory & defeat today.

“Our batting was terrific, especially Pollard was terrific. It was a tremendous effort by him and towards the end Jean Paul Duminy came up with some smart batting,” he said. “Kieron has a terrific bat swing and tremendous body strength, so he can clear any ground in the world. He played smartly. It’s just not about going bang-bang from ball one. He paced his innings beautifully,” Sachin added.

The Mumbai captain, however, said that there was more room for improvement in his bowling dept. “I am sort of ok with the performance. I wouldn’t say that I am satisfied because we could have finished better with a bigger margin of runs. The bowling can get better. In batting we have been able to get close to 180 in all the matches. It is probably our bowling in which we have to work upon,” he said.

Tendulkar said his side would come out with the same intensity in their do-or-die encounter against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday. “Our focus is to play good cricket and that is what we would be looking against Royal Challengers Bangalore. They are a very good side and it is going to be a great contest,” he said.

Kieron’s Guyana counterpart Ramnaresh Sarwan too was of the view that until Pollard arrived at the crease, his side was very much in the match.“Pollard played brilliantly. He took the game away from us. Sachin (Tendulkar) and Shikhar (Dhawan) were going pretty well but we pulled it back,” Sarwan said.

“While chasing we wanted to get off to a good start, wanted to keep wickets in hand for the last five overs but it was too late. 180 is always a difficult chase, 160 would have been a chase able target,” he added. Man-of-the-match K Pollard said for him it does not matter where he bats as long as the team ends up on the winning side.

“I don’t have any preferences in batting order. That’s for the coach and captain to decide. At the end of the day I am ready to bat at any position for the team. If the team comes out victorious, I am more than happy,” he said.

“I had a couple of overs to settle. So I thought to acclimatize to the pitch and the bowlers down before going for the big hits. The pitch was nice. The ball was coming on to the bat and you just needed to connect properly,” Pollard said. “The wind was playing its part. If u hit it 70 odd metres the wind would pull the ball at least 10 odd metres beyond the boundary line.”

By: Devesh D. Bhuwad

Tags: Champions League Twenty20, CLT20, Cricket, Guyana, Kieron Pollard, MI, Mumbai Indians, Sachin Tendulkar, Sports, Sports India