Despite losing the first game of the UAE leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 against Chennai Super Kings in Dubai, Mumbai Indians stand-in skipper Kieron Pollard remained upbeat. After losing their fourth match of the season, the Mumbai Indians are in risk of falling out of the top four in the points table.
Even after a 20-run loss against Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians are still in fourth place on the IPL 2021 points table. To qualify for the 14th season's play-offs, they must win at least four of their remaining six games.
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Kieron Pollard threatened to repeat his performance against CSK in New Delhi a few months ago, but Josh Hazlewood took the crucial wicket.
"We needed one player who could go for deep bat. There were a few gentle dismissals. We can't allow it happen at this level," Pollard said, "but we still have six games to go."
Mumbai Indians surrendered a little too much in the last overs, according to Pollard, as CSK scored 69 runs in the final five overs. CSK were reduced to 24 for 4 at the end of the powerplay, but Ruturaj Gaikwad produced a masterful innings (88 not out) to help them reach 156 in the 20-over limit.
"We must have formed a partnership." In hindsight, you can do a lot of things differently. I believe that is the difference between winning by 20 runs and losing by 20 runs. At the end, I gave too many with the ball. Their batters attempted to maintain the momentum throughout the game, but we were unable to do so.