MI head coach Jayawardene calls decision to retire out Tilak "tactical", hails Pandya for record-shattering spell

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], April 5 (ANI): Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene called the decision to retire out the struggling Tilak Varma against the Lucknow Super Giants, a "tactical" one. He outlined the reason behind his decision and said a "fresh" face was needed when the asking rate showed signs of escalating into the realm of unattainability.

MI's pursuit of the 204-run target was nothing short of a rollercoaster ride. The visitors savoured dominance in patches, but Lucknow bounced back with an inspired bowling display to take the game right down the wire.

With the equation down to 29 needed in 12 deliveries, it was time for Tilak to live up to his reputation and fill Lucknow's sky with fireworks. Five balls into Shardul Thakur's penultimate over, Tilak's bat remained silent, and MI decided to swap him with Mitchell Santner, bringing an end to the southpaw's time at the crease on 25 from 23 deliveries with just two fours.

MI skipper Hardik Pandya took the brunt on his shoulders to singlehandedly steer his side past the finishing line. Hardik smoked the ball past the boundary rope over deep extra cover with writs of iron. With 14 runs needed in four deliveries, Hardik refused to rotate the strike even though a single was on offer.

The unlikely sight of Hardik staying unbeaten without pulling off the heist overtook Lucknow as the euphoric Super Giants relished their 12-run triumph. After the game, Jayawardene reflected on the decision and felt a fresh face was the need of the hour, even though the decision didn't sit well with some former cricketers.

"Tilak batted well for us when we lost that (third) wicket and that partnership with Surya. He wanted to get going but just couldn't and waited till the last few overs hoping; because you spent some time, you should have been able to get that hit out of the way. But I felt that in the end, I just needed someone fresh to have a go when he was struggling. These things happen in cricket, and it was not nice to take him out, but I had to do that. That was a tactical decision at that point," Jayawardene said in the post-match press conference.

While pulling off a rescue act became too much for Hardik, considering his no-show with the bat, his record-shattering feat with the ball reverberated throughout the entire stadium. He got his hands on his first five-wicket haul in T20s and became the first captain to claim a five-for in the IPL.

"With the experience that he has, he realised that this [bowling slow and back of length] is what he probably needs to do because we did leak too many runs in the powerplay. We just needed to take a bit of pace off, which we should have done in the powerplay as well. I think that's why these guys are experienced; they adapt to conditions pretty well, see what the opportunities present, and he definitely, with the ball, he pulled the game back for us and gave us a pretty decent chance of chasing this total," Jayawardene added.

With figures of 5/36, Hardik's game-changing spell included the priceless scalps of Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant and David Miller. He returned to the action to bowl the final over and removed the tail-ender Akash Deep to cap off his spell. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)