Mumbai Indians' coach Robin Singh says big-hitting West Indian was held back so that he could hit the fast bowlers as he did in the semi-finals against Bangalore
Mumbai Indians' coach Robin Singh says big-hitting West Indian was held back so that he could hit the fast bowlers as he did in the semi-finals against Bangalore
In the end they may have won by a comfortable 22-run margin, but Chennai Super Kings' skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitted he was not sure of victory when Mumbai Indians' big-hitter Kieron Pollard was blasting away in the IPL final yesterday.
|
| So near, yet so far! Mumbai Indians' Kieron Pollard smashes one en route his 10-ball 27 that included three fours and two sixes in the IPL final against Chennai Super Kings at the DY Patil Stadium in Nerul, Navi Mumbai yesterday. pic:IPL 2010/Getty images |
"I was a bit worried when Pollard got going. The way he was batting he could have got the runs. Even from that situation, he could have put us out of the game if he had not got out. It has happened earlier in this format," said Dhoni after leading his team to victory.
Many felt Pollard was held back until too late by MI and that cost them the game. "We wanted Pollard to play the fast bowlers in the end as we saw him do successfully in the semis. The move almost worked for us again," said MI coach Robin Singh, while defending the decision to send JP Duminy and others ahead of the burly Trinidadian.
"JP is also a positive player and has played some scintillating knocks," added Robin.
Pollard smashed 27 off 10 balls, including 22 runs in one over from CSK's Doug Bollinger, to raise the hopes of the MI fans.
"We lost the game in the first 10 overs. We needed to keep the run rate down to around 10 per over but we could not achieve that and after that there was too much pressure," said Robin.
Overall, the MI coach felt that his team let the advantage slip when they dropped Suresh Raina's catches.
After being dropped on 13 and 28, Raina went on to top score for CSK with 57 off 35 balls. "Our bowlers did a good job. If not for the dropped catches, we could have restricted them to 140 or 150," said Robin.
