Mumbai Indians' (MI) stand-in skipper Kieron Pollard was all praise for his team's bowling attack after they came back and restricted the well-recognised Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batting unit to a manageable score of 164/6 in the five-wicket win in Abu Dhabi.
RCB did get off to a solid start with young Devdutt Padikkal (74) scoring a fifty, but MI's bowlers were good enough to gain control of the proceedings through the middle-overs and at the end. Jasprit Bumrah (3/14) was the pick of the lot while the rest provided him able support.
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"At one point it looked like we were staring at the barrel at 190-200 and I thought we came back really well and to restrict a batting line-up like RCB, with wickets in hands, and the position they were in to 165 was well done to the bowlers," said Pollard at the post-match press conference on Wednesday (October 28), as quoted by PTI.
"Bumrah coming back and getting wickets, Boulty (Trent Boult) as well, Krunal Pandya bowling four economical overs, so again, was a total team effort in terms of the bowl and restricting them was very good for us," he added.
Pollard, who made 17 in the second half, was delighted to have taken the crucial wicket of great AB de Villiers (15) in the first innings just when he was getting set and could've taken RCB to an intimidating total.
"Once we got a wicket, our spinners will come into play, and so they did and it worked for us. A couple of overs they got away from us again but we were able to pull it back," he said.
"Luckily, I came on at that time and got the wicket of AB with an innocuous delivery that could have gone straight for six and the momentum would have been straight to them. A bit of luck on our side, but the guys really bowled well."
Pollard then hailed the "burning desire" of Suryakumar Yadav, the middle-order batsman, who sent a strong message to the Indian selection panel which overlooked him for the tour to Australia, playing an outstanding innings of 79 not out in 43 deliveries and taking MI home with five wickets left.
"It (Yadav's innings) was very, very valuable. We always spoke about one of the top three batters, or top four batters, bat all the way through if you are chasing, go all the way through and win the game for us. He (Surya) has done that more often than not," said Pollard.
"He wants to do well and today again he showed his class on how well he can bat...and deep down inside the burning desire to don that blue, but again he continues to show consistency, which is all that he can do as an individual," added the captain.
Pollard said after the last match's defeat, his team were only focused on their performance and getting back to winning ways, not the points table.
"We haven't got much time to think about that (possible scenario of five teams could finish with eight wins). Our main game today was to get two points, we went out and played really well to get those two points," he signed off.
MI now stand at the top of the standings with eight wins in twelve matches. They next play on Saturday (October 31) in Dubai versus the Delhi Capitals (DC).
