IPL 2024 | Pandya on Ashutosh Sharma: “Unbelievable, playing the way he did”

Hardik Pandya, captain of the Mumbai Indians, was relieved after his team defeated the Punjab Kings by nine runs. He also said that during the IPL 2024 match versus PBKS, every player’s nerves were put to the test.

Ashutosh Sharma, the batter for PBKS, came close to tipping the scales in favor of the hosts, but ultimately failed, leaving after 61 runs in 28 balls. The Mumbai Indians defeated the Punjab Kings in the IPL 2024 encounter, bowling them out for 183 in 19.1 overs.

Currently ranked sixth in the IPL 2024 points standings, MI has won three of their last seven games.

“It was an excellent game. It taxed everyone’s nerves. We discussed how this game would examine the characters. During the post-match award ceremony, Pandya said, “But it is natural (that) you (would) think you are ahead but IPL has a tendency to show that oppositions can come back and how.”

Pandya praised Ashutosh Sharma’s stunning knock as well.

“Hitting the ball off the center and playing the way he did was unbelievable. It’s excellent for his prospects. We did talk about it during the timeout—not about how we look—and we’ll continue to battle to avoid bowling the soft balls. Although our batsmen performed well, we were soft in several overs, according to Pandya.

Even though the Punjab Kings have recently lost a few tight games, stand-in skipper Sam Curran said it was encouraging to see young players like Ashutosh and Shashank Singh rising to the situation.

“Another tight game—I believe this squad like close games—but regrettably, another defeat. “Another outstanding hit from the young guy on Ashutosh, but another narrow defeat,” he said.

It’s very difficult. It is encouraging that the younger players have brought the team this close after we lost a lot of wickets early on.”

“They have incredible confidence, you see a guy like Ashutosh having the confidence to play the sweeps and the big hits against pacers, it’s so great to watch them in action,” Curran said.

The Englishman said that there were many advantages to this kind of narrow losses.

“Losing tight games is discouraging, but this club has a lot going for them. The sun will rise tomorrow, and we want to go on a winning streak. We still feel we can turn things around,” Curran said.

Jasprit Bumrah, the player of the match, who bowled a fantastic spell of 3/21, claimed that the game was more closer than he had expected.

“The game was really lot tighter than we had anticipated. I want to have an influence right now. You want to take advantage of the two overs that the ball swings in this style,” he remarked.

According to Bumrah, the T20 format is unfair to bowlers and biased in favor of hitters. Because of the Impact Player rule, time constraints, and batsmanship going over, bowlers may find this format challenging. All you can do is put forth your best effort and support yourself,” he said.

“Go out and provide your all. On the field, wherever I am, I attempt to communicate. Don’t send out too many messages, Bumrah continued.