RCB legend defends MI captain

Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru star Ab de Villiers has come out in support of Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya following the team’s loss to PBKS. Punjab Kings clinched a clinical 5-wicket win in Qualifier 2 to end MI’s dreams of clinching their 6th IPL trophy. Following the match Hardik claimed that MI had failed to execute what they wanted. However, ABD begs to differ.

de Villiers defends Pandya after MI’s loss

Speaking on JioHotstar, de Villiers believed that MI were outplayed while bowling and not because of poor execution. The ex-RCB star said that he felt bad for Hardik, adding that he disagreed with the criticism being meted out on him.

“I feel for Hardik and the questions he had to face afterwards. It’s tough being a captain — there’s a lot of emotion involved. I’ve been there, and it’s never easy to admit things didn’t go as planned. But I don’t agree with the criticism. They had a par score with the bat and were simply outplayed while bowling,” de Villiers said.

ABD further noted that Shreyas Iyer and Josh Inglis had made the difference in the match. He added that while it would be a dream for any team to bowl 120 yorkers, no side was perfect.

“Of course, you want to bowl 120 perfect yorkers, but no team is perfect. Shreyas Iyer, and to some extent Josh Inglis, made the difference. They were outplayed by quality cricket — that’s the beauty of the game,” he added.

What happened in MI vs PBKS, Qualifier 2?

Shreyas Iyer was the hero with an unbeaten 87-run knock as PBKS chased down 204 target in 19 overs. Nehal Wadhera (29-nall 48) and Josh Inglis (38 off 21) also contributed to the win as PBKS set up a final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on June 3.

MI set a 204-run target. While there were no half-centuries, Jonny Bairstow (24-ball 38), Tilak Varma (29-ball 44), Suryakumar Yadav (26-ball 44) and Naman Dhir (37 off 18) equally contributed as MI posted 203/6.