We were short by 20 runs, says Hardik Pandya

“We’ve been playing good cricket but didn’t tonight, that cost us. We’ve won five trophies, it’s always been tough,” Hardik said after losing to Punjab Kings

HYDERABAD: Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya said that they were 20 runs short given the way the wicket played.

“The way the wicket played, we were 20 runs short. Happens. We’ve been playing good cricket but didn’t tonight, that cost us. We’ve won five trophies, it’s always been tough,” Hardik said after losing to Punjab Kings in the race for the top two positions on the points table of the IPL.

“If you take the foot off the accelerator, other teams take over. The message would be simple: this is a small blip, learn from it and look forward to the knockout. It’s still fresh, and will identify issues later. Our batting needed to capitalise to get 20 more though,” the Mumbai captain said.

On whether Karn Sharma should have been tried as an impact substitute, Hardik felt otherwise.

“Not really, we back Ashwani. Don’t think there was much difference in the pitch between the innings. Our bowling wasn’t clinical, they played good shots as well,” he said.

“Just want to play good cricket going forward, figure out the right template for the batting group. Not much panic though, we knew what was at stake. Nothing changes from the situation four days ago that we found ourselves back in,” Hardik said about the next big game.