Rahul Chahar picked 2/26 against Kings XI Punjab.
The Mumbai Indians (MI) beat Kings XI Punjab (XKIP) by 48 runs in their fourth match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 on Thursday, October 1. The 'Boys in Blue and Gold' posted a mammoth total of 191/4 in their 20 overs and restricted KXIP to just 143/8.
All five of the MI bowlers contributed with wickets and the young leg-spinner Rahul Chahar picked 2/26 in his 4 overs. He picked up the wickets of the in-form KXIP skipper KL Rahul and the dangerous Aussie, Glenn Maxwell.
IPL 2020: Cricket fraternity lauds MI's clinical performance after 48-run win over KXIP
After the match, he spoke to the commentators and revealed that the pitch at the Dubai International Stadium helped the spinners. This gave him the confidence to pick up wickets and he did exactly that.
Chahar said in the post-match conference, "There was help for the spinners in the pitch and I was gaining confidence from it. My plan was to add pressure on them by giving less run and then attack for wickets. I was trying for the wickets."
The Mumbai Indians had found themselves in a spot of bother scoring runs at a rate of less than 7 RPO. They had just 102 runs on the board at the end of the 15th over. Kieron Pollard's unbeaten 47 off 20 balls supported by Hardik Pandya's unbeaten 30 off 11 balls helped them get to 191 runs. Chahar also said that MI has a lot of faith in the big-hitting skills of the duo.
"We have a lot of faith in big-hitting skills of Pollard and Hardik. Pollard almost took us to the victory in the last game against RCB. They are in good form and they can finish games in any situation," the 21-year-old said.
(With inputs from ANI)