Mumbai Indians player Harbhajan Singh said his side could have chased done the target set by Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League match here today if Sachin Tendulkar had not suffered cramp due to dehydration.
Mumbai Indians player Harbhajan Singh said his side could have chased done the target set by Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League match here today if Sachin Tendulkar had not suffered cramp due to dehydration.
u00a0"Sachin is better now. But his coming out due to cramp was the cause for our loss. Youngsters like Ambati Rayadu and Saurabh Tiwari were out quickly and we were not able to put up good partnerships. It is part of the game. If Sachin had stayed at the wicket for 15 overs, the story would have been different," Harbhajan said at the post-match after his side lost the match by 24 runs.
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Harbhajan conceded the youngsters failed to perform today but hoped that they would do better in the remaining matches.
"We have to give them lot of encouragement for what they have done. They have won a lot of games for us. This is one of the games that they did not click. We have lot of faith in them. They are all young and exciting cricketers. I am sure they will do better in our future games," he said.
He gave credit to Chennai for their fine bowling and fielding performances. "The track is little on the slower side from what I have seen from the last two three games. When I was batting it was pretty slow. May be they have been playing lot of games on this strip. I think 166 is still was a very good bowling effort and we should have got that. "I must say that Chennai bowled very well and their fielding was also brilliant. They played better cricket than us. Hats off to them for their performance. Hopefully, we will get our acts together and go back to the winning ways." the off-spinner said.
u00a0Harbhajan said his side had plans how to bowl on Matthew Hayden and Murali Vijay.
"We had the plan to use slower bowlers against Matthew Hayden since he is a very dangerous player. I have done well against him and luckily it went in my way today. In Twenty20 cricket, bowlers are the ones on the receiving end. "My plan was to get Vijay's wicket rather than just bowling dot balls because he is kind of a player if he is allowed can score of lot of runs in very short time. To be honest, Vijay has been batting really well. It is great to see a youngster performing like this at this level," Harbhajan said.
He said it was a joy to play under Tendulkar as he leads from the front. "To me Sachin is a very good captain. It is great to have a player like Sachin leading the side from the front and scoring lot of runs and winning matches for us. I am really enjoying each and every movement playing alongside with him and under him. That is all I can say as I have not played under any foreign captain," he said.
Harbhajan also informed that pacer Zaheer Khan will be fit for Mumbai Indians' next game.
"All I can say is that he is ready for the next game. He had a bit of swelling on his left knee due a hit the other day," he said.
Man-of-the-match Suresh Raina said the victory over Mumbai Indians was a collective effort. "Everyone's bowled well today. 150-160 is tough to defend. In such a scenario we need to field well, and today we fielded exceptionally. Jakati, Thushara and Ashwin bowled well, didn't give MI too many boundary balls," he said.
Raina was elated that his side have returned to winning ways after a series of losses.
"I am happy that we have struck momentum. Having won three matches in a row, we are in a good position to reach the semifinals. But we want to keep this winning streak going and we have few big matches coming up. All of them are do-or-die matches," he said.
"Importantly, all of us are enjoying the game. Murali Vijay has been batting well. Matthew Hayden has been doing reasonably well. Badrinath and Hussey made valuable contributions. Dhoni's knock was equally important. Cricket is a team game and we are gelling well as a team and are enjoying each other's success," he said.
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