aina rues batsmen ot cashing in after defeat in Super Over
AJKOT: When Ravindra Jadeja uprooted the stumps at the striker’s end to deny Mumbai Indians the winning run off the last ball, the SCA Stadium erupted in joy as Gujarat Lions had forced a tie, taking the game into the Super Over. James Faulkner gave away 11 f the Super Over but Aaron nch and Brendon McCullum anaged to score just six in ply; Jasprit Bumrah wled a gem of an over to eep the explosive batsmen check. Gujarat Lions captain resh Raina bemoaned the ability of Finch and cCullum to hit a single oundary. “Honestly, we idn’t put an even score the board, were 30-40 ns short, but we wled really well,” he id at the post-match remony. “Credit es to our bowlers as ell, but it’s that one ay and we dn’t have hat in the uper Over d ended on the losing side.”
Raina praised Bumrah, who justified his credentials as a death-overs specialist, although he overstepped and bowled a wide as well. “It has been a very entertaining game for the crowd, for each and every player and shows the quality of the IPL. Bumrah bowled a really good over. I mean with just 12 to get, he bowled yorkers and reverseswingers and you can’t do much about it.”
Rajkot has been a good venue for batting with an average score of 188 in four matches by teams batting first before Saturday. While the first two matches were won by teams batting second, RCB and Kings XI Punjab reversed that trend in the last two matches. Raina justified his decision to bat first.
“The wicket was slow. We tried pretty hard, which is the reason why we lost a few wickets up front, but I still feel we bowled pretty well,” he said. “We didn’t have AJ (Andrew Tye) after the 10th over, but still Jimmy (James Faulkner), Basil (Thampi), (Ravindra) Jadeja, myself and especially (Ankit) Soni, we came back pretty strongly, but credit goes to Mumbai Indians.”