Mumbai Indians (MI) wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan opened for his side in a do-or-die match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) and smashed an unbeaten half-century. Kishan was struggling to score in the IPL 2021 before he finally got some runs against the Royals on Tuesday (October 5). 

In his previous three matches of IPL 2021 second-phase, Kishan scored 11 (vs CSK), 14 (vs KKR), and 9 (vs RCB). He looked disheartened after the failure against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Virat Kohli was seen having a chat with him after the match.

Kishan, in the post-match presentation, mentioned that interaction with Kohli, Hardik Pandya, and his other teammates helped him. He was named the Player of the Match for his knock against RR which MI won by 8 wickets.

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"It's nice to be back opening and getting runs for the team and helping win by a big margin. Feeling really good was much needed for our team to get momentum. It was good to field first, got a good idea of the surface," said Kishan.

"Our plan was to play as straight as possible. Just play in the V was the plan and the batsmen executed really well. I feel ups and downs are a big part of any sportsman. I was also not in good shape," he added.

Kishan said he got a lot of support when he was out of touch in the last few matches. Apart from the interactions with seniors, he also watched his old videos which gave him confidence. "Most of the batters were not getting runs like previous seasons. We had great support staff. Our captain... in fact, I had a chat with Virat bhai, Hardik bhai.. everyone was there to support me. 

"I had a chat with KP (Pollard) who said you just need to keep things simple, bat the way you used to do, just watch the videos of what you did in the last season. I watched a few videos of my batting and that gave me a bit of confidence."

Mumbai are still in contention for the playoffs but a lot will depend on the outcome of the Kolkata Knight Riders' match against Rajasthan. 

"There is talk of us wanting KKR to lose the next game and us winning our next game (smiles), but that is way ahead now. We just have to prepare for our next game. Need to play with the same energy today. Looking forward to doing this again in the next game," he said.

(With ANI Inputs)