It's Good When You Scrap Victories, It Gives You Confidence: Kieron Pollard

Mumbai Indians all-rounder Kieron Pollard might not have top-scored for his team in a winning effort; however, his innings at the backend was highly crucial. Kieron Pollard performed the finishing role to significant effect as he struck 35 runs off 22 balls to lift the defending champions to 150 against the SunRisers Hyderabad in Chennai. The towering all-rounder praised his team’s fighting effort and hailed the importance of the backend runs.

Mumbai Indians started strongly after electing to bat first as Rohit Sharma and Quinton De Kock built a 50-run stand. Vijay Shankar’s slower deliveries did the trick as he removed the opposition captain and Suryakumar Yadav. SunRisers Hyderabad kept drying the runs by picking up wickets frequently. In the end, Kieron Pollard’s unbeaten 35 off 22 balls, including the final two deliveries going for sixes, were crucial in Mumbai, setting 151 to win for Hyderabad.

SunRisers Hyderabad responded by stitching a 67-run opening stand in less than eight overs as Jonny Bairstow and David Warner opened the innings. But the Orange Army sustained yet another meltdown, starting with Jonny Bairstow’s hit-wicket dismissal in Krunal Pandya’s second over. Hyderabad hardly looked settled from there and while there were flashes of them finding their way back, Mumbai’s bowlers’ regular strikes kept closing the doors on them. Eventually, Mumbai consigned David Warner’s men to their third successive loss in IPL 2021.

It’s good when you scrap the victories, it gives you confidence: Kieron Pollard

Kieron Pollard underlined that the Mumbai Indians are fluid with their batting line-up and are ready whenever they are ready. The Trinidad & Tobago seam-bowling all-rounder conceded that getting those extra runs are highly helpful and felt that it’s challenging to adjust on this track. Pollard highlighted that when teams eke out victories out of nowhere, it indeed gives them confidence and he is happy to serve anything asked of him. Apart from plundering 17 runs off the final over and bowling two economical overs for ten runs, the 33-year old took a catch off Manish Pandey’s bat.

“I think the situation dictates who comes first, we are all padded up and whenever we’re called on, we’re ready. There’s no secret. We have to find a way and again in the back end getting those extra runs helped us. it’s very difficult to adjust on this pitch when you only have a couple of balls, but that’s what we train for. It’s good when you scrap the victories, it gives you confidence. When it’s coming out nicely you want to bowl another one, but what the team needs at the moment is you need the main bowlers. Just happy to do my job there,” Pollard told in the post-match presentation.

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