Pune Warriors India slumped to their seventh straight defeat after losing to Mumbai Indians by 21 runs at the DY Patil Stadium on Wednesday. Their key batsman, Robin Uthappa, said that half the plot was lost when Alfonso Thomas gave away 27 runs in the penultimate over. “When you get nine balls in an over, you can surely make it a big over. (Kieron) Pollard did just that and made full use of it.”
However, Uthappa felt that it was unfair to blame one person for the defeat. “Win or lose, you do it as a team. It would be unfair to point fingers,” he said.
The Karnataka batsman, who scored an unbeaten 34, said that losing seven games in a row didn’t do any good to their morale.
However, he remained optimistic and felt that Pune still had a chance to make it to the playoffs. “I have been in sides where we have lost five games in a row. You need to just win that one game to regain your confidence. Cricket is a very funny game. Anything can happen. We still have five games left and if we win all those, we are right there. You can never write off any side in this version of the game.”
Uthappa was all praise for leg-spinner Rahul Sharma and said that his spell of 4-0-7-2 was an inspiration to all. “The Man of the Match was from our side today. That’s a positive. He bowled brilliantly.”
Uthappa was also confident that Sourav Ganguly would get into the groove soon. “Ganguly hasn’t played for over four months. He is not a machine. He has got 11000 runs in international cricket and has a couple of days before the next game.”
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians’ Tirumalasetti Suman, who sizzled with the bat with a 16-ball 36, was happy to get some time in the middle. Suman, recovering from a thumb injury, said that his new skipper Sachin Tendulkar was encouraging and it would be nice to open the innings with him.
“Today, I was like a floater in the team. Sachin paaji told me to stay positive as there were Pollard and (Andrew) Symonds after me. Given a chance I would like to open. But whatever role I am given, I am happy to do it,” he said.
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