PBKS chased down MI's 131/6 with 14 balls to spare.
Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain KL Rahul while reviewing the victory against Mumbai Indians (MI) in an IPL 2021 encounter on Friday (April 23) said that he and his coach had a long chat about batting second.
Punjab Kings thrashed defending champions Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets in their fifth match of IPL 14 at MA Chidambaram stadium Chennai.
Opting to bowling, KL Rahul-led franchise showed great temperament with the ball and on account of Mohammad Shami and Ravi Bishnoi who returned with the identical figures of 2/21 reduced MI to 131 for 6 in their quota of 20 overs.
Chasing the target PBKS got off to a great start as openers, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal scored 45 runs at the end of the powerplay overs.
IPL 2021: Wasim Jaffer leads the reactions after PBKS' clinical victory over MI
However, after the wicket of Agarwal, an unbroken 79-run stand for the second wicket between skipper KL Rahul (60*) and Chris Gayle (43*) guided their team to a impressive win.
Talking about the victory at post match presentation, PBKS skipper KL Rahul said that he along with coach Anil Kumble had a long chat about batting second. He added that their bowlers were under pressure and it was important for them to bowl in these conditions.
“The coach and I did have a long chat about batting second, I felt that the wicket was sticky and the first few games we’ve batted and felt that the bowlers were always under pressure.
“I felt it was important that bowlers get to bowl in those conditions and we heard that there was a lot of dew. So I felt like it can ease up and come on better – that didn’t happen, but we knew what to chase and that helped. The dry ball did play a big part, it just started ripping,” KL Rahul said during the post match presentation.
Rahul further said that it was really hard to get singles and Chris Gayle played a huge role in figuring out which bowler to target.
“When that happens it gets real hard to even get singles. But it was good of Chris, he figured out who to target, that’s the benefit of having someone like him,” he said.
With the 9-wicket win over MI, KL Rahul-led side are now placed at the fifth position on the points table and will next face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
(ANI Inputs)