IPL 2018: Nitish Rana Thanks Sachin Tendulkar for his Time and Advice

The Mumbai Indians has been making a late surge in Vivo IPL 11. After a pretty ordinary start, they are slowly making their way back into the tournament.

They won a couple of games in succession against fancier opponents which will surely keep them in good stead, as the tournament reaches its business end. After defeating the Kings X Punjab, it was Mumbai’s turn to get the better of Kolkata Knight Riders yet again.

No IPL franchise has beaten any other team the amount Mumbai has beaten Kolkata over the past 11 years. With the victory on Sunday, they took the head to head record to 17-5. Courtesy some impressive batting by the Mumbai top order batsmen; they eventually managed to post 181 in their allotted 20 overs after batting first. Suryakumar Yadav continued his rich vein of form and scored a brilliant 59 off 42 deliveries.

He shared a crucial 91-run stand with Evin Lewis to get Mumbai off to a sensational start. Hardik Pandya played a brisk hand in the end. However, Mumbai fell at least 20 runs short of where they would have actually liked to be. It was some good tight bowling by Kolkata in the death overs which prevented Mumbai from going past the 190-mark.

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Kolkata needed to get off to a good start if they had to win the match. Chris Lynn struck some impressive shots, but Mitchell McClenaghan dismissed him eventually. His partner, Shubman Gill also fell in quick succession which reduced Kolkata to 28/2.

However, from there on the duo of Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana revived Kolkata’s innings. Riding on the back of their impressive knocks, Kolkata were sensing victory.

Mayank Markande dropped a sitter of a catch of Uthappa made Mumbai pay for it. He scored 54 before Markane stalled his progress and made amends for his dropped catch. Nitish Rana also fell pretty quickly, and Mumbai roared back into the match. Captain Dinesh Karthik mentioned he was not happy with the loss of two set batsmen at that time.

Mumbai bowled brilliantly from there and eventually sealed a 13 runs win. Krunal Pandya was handed the final over. The left-arm spinner held his nerves and did the job for Mumbai.

Following their defeat, Nitish Rana, the former Mumbai Indians batsman shared a picture with Sachin Tendulkar. In the picture, the “Little Master” was seen giving him a tip of advice. Taking to his Instagram handle, Rana shared the picture with a caption,

“We didn’t get the result we aimed for but to be a champion, I think you have to see the big picture. It’s about every day hard work and about thriving on a challenge and learning from the best. Thank You Sachin Sir for your time, efforts and the motivation @sachintendulkar

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