Follow UsKrunal Pandya heaped heavy praise on Mohsin Khan after the left-arm seamer defended 11 runs in the final over against Tim David and Cameron Green to keep Lucknow Super Giants alive in the race for the playoffs.
Mohsin missed the first half of the Indian Premier League 2023 due to an injury before making his comeback against Gujarat Titans. The 24-year-old, however, had a rough night and conceded 42 runs in three overs. But Mohsin looked in good rhythm on Tuesday (May 16) and bowled a perfect last over to deny Mumbai Indians a victory.
“Mohsin has a big heart. He had a surgery and playing IPL after such a thing, then the sky is the limit,” said Krunal after Lucknow won the game by five runs and climbed to No. 3 on the points table.
Talking about the final over, Mohsin said: “The plan was to execute what I did in practice and I executed. Even Krunal was talking to me and I told him the same. The run-up is the same, did not change it in the last over. I was trying to calm myself down, not look at the scoreboard and bowl the six balls well.
“Since the wicket was gripping, I tried the slower ball, but I bowled two of those and then changed to the yorker and it was reversing as well. Been a tough time as I was injured, playing after a year. My father got discharged from the ICU yesterday and he was in the hospital for the last 10 days and I did it for him, he would have been watching.”
Asked to bat, Lucknow lost their top-three batters with just 35 runs on the board but that’s when Marcus Stoinis and Krunal (42-ball 49 retd hurt) joined hands and propelled them to an above-par score on a tricky surface. Stoinis, in particular, was brilliant and smacked four fours and eight sixes in his 47-ball 89*.
“He (Stoinis) played really well, kept hitting straight which is what you need to do on a pitch like this. It was a brilliant knock from him,” said Rohit Sharma about Stoinis who was named Player of the Match.
In reply, Rohit and Ishan Kishan put on 90 runs for the opening wicket inside 10 overs but Mumbai lost all the momentum once they perished. David (19-ball 32*) tried his best but couldn’t finish the job. With this loss, MI don’t only have to win their last game but will also expect a couple of results to go in their favour.
“We didn't play well enough to win the game. There were little moments in the game that we didn't win unfortunately. We assessed the pitch really well and it was a good pitch to bat on and that score was definitely chaseable and we lost our way in the second half of the innings,” said Rohit.
“We gave too many runs at the back end and the last three overs went for a few. But the way we started with the bat we were in a good position to chase, but like I said we lost our way in the second half. Not sure how the calculation (about the points and NRR) will work, but we need to come out and play some good cricket in our last game.”