Sport - Cricket

Players have come to terms with Twenty20: Pollock

Mumbai: Praising his teammates for stunning the high-flying Delhi Daredevils in the DLF-IPL clash on Sunday, Mumbai Indians captain Shaun Pollock said the players have finally come to terms with the Twenty20 format.

After leading the side to its second successive win that followed four straight losses, Pollock said, “We played very well in the last two games. Our juniors have started performing and the seniors are doing well. The players have now begun to understand the game.”

For Pollock the icing on the cake was his Man of the Match award.

He said that it was important for the team to get in-form rival openers Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag out. “Once we dismissed Sehwag we knew we had a chance,” he said.

Meanwhile, Daredevils’ skipper Virender Sehwag squarely blamed the batsmen for the side’s shocking defeat. “Our bowlers did very well to restrict them to 162. But we kept losing wickets at regular intervals and the asking rate went up. It was batting failure which was responsible for the defeat,” he said.

Sehwag also refused to blame the wicket for the defeat. “It was a good wicket. What more could you expect for a Twenty20 match?” he said.

Sehwag felt his dismissal in the 11th over when the score was 82 for three, was the turning point. “Had I not got out at that stage I am confident we would have won comfortably,” he said.

Sehwag said that the middle order needs to perform and cannot all the time depend on a solid start from the top. “WWe lost Gautam (Gambhir) and Shikhar (Dhawan) cheaply (2 for 4). But the middle order has to perform. We have to concentrate on our batting,” Sehwag said. — PTI

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