Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) defeated Mumbai Indians (MI) in a thrilling contest at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma strenghened RCB’s batting and helped set a massive total of 221 following which MI tried to chase the target but fell short of 12 runs. With this win, RCB conquered Wankhede stadium after 10 years and MI skipper Hardik Pandya opened up about the defeat which Mumbai Indians faced despite putting up a strong show.

Hardik Pandya After Loss Against RCB

 “It was a run-fest. The wicket was really good. I was just talking about that to myself. We fell short with two hits, don’t know what to say. The way the wicket was, the bowlers did not really have much space to hide. It came down to execution. You can stop the batters, but I don’t want to be harsh on the bowlers. It was a tough track, not much options. 5-10, maybe 12 runs I can say (we conceded more). The original skeleton of our team, Naman was batting down the order. In the last game, Ro (Rohit) was unavailable, so someone had to be pushed up. He has that multi-dimensional game. Once Ro was back, we knew Naman would have to come down. Tilak was fantastic. ” Hardik Pandya in post-match presentation

Hardik Pandya On Tilak Varma Getting Retired Out In Last Match

“A lot of things happened in the last game, people made a lot of things. They did not know he had a nasty hit the previous day. Because of the finger he had, the coach felt it was a better option if someone fresh could come in (and do it). But today he was fantastic. In this sort of a game, powerplays are crucial. Couple of overs, we were not able to get (enough runs) in the middle and that pushed us back. They executed well at the death and we could not play it well. Having him (Bumrah) makes this team, any team in the world really special. He came and did his job, very happy to have him. In life, never back down, always see the positive side of it. the message will be very clear: go out there and try to play the best cricket of your life. We are all backing them and hope for the result to come our way.” said MI skipper as quoted by ESPNCricinfo