The Kiwi batsman, Martin Guptill, got a shot at redemption when he was called up for a must win game against DD. The opener didn’t have the best of starts to his IPL career when he scored only two runs, against SRH. Guptill proved his mettle by giving us a good start and also anchored the innings after Rohit Sharma was dismissed. Talking about his opportunity Guptill said, “It’s my second game of the tournament, I’ve been sitting on the side lines for most of the time. It’s tough but we’ve played enough cricket to know that we have to sit out for a few games. You’ve still got to prepare and we did that, luckily for us, it came off.”

Guptill opened the innings alongside Rohit Sharma. He loved batting with the captain and was all praises for the Hit-Man, “Obviously Rohit is a world-class player and he makes it look so easy, just how easily he hits the ball and some of the shots he plays are pretty amazing. Hopefully I can keep my place in the team for the next game and watch him a bit more.” After the fall of Rohit, Guptill was joined by Krunal Pandya, “Krunal would keep telling me to get him on and he’ll play his shots, but if it was in my area to still have a go. It worked pretty well and we fed off each other extremely well,” said a happy Guptill.

Krunal played a blinder of an innings, to put MI in the driving seat. Talking about Krunal’s knock, Guppy said, “I did have the best seat in the house, he played some extremely good shots and hit the ball extremely well so being out there I was able to see it up close and personal and luckily I didn’t have to run too many and get more tired than I already was.” We have a Kiwi group in the ranks, which comprises of Mitchell McClenaghan, Martin Guptill, Tim Southee, Corey Anderson and our bowling coach, Shane Bond. “It is a little like being at home obviously, playing a lot with Tim and Corey and a bit with Bondy as well, he obviously coached New Zealand a bit and hence we share a strong bond. Having a few other guys in the team that you know well helped me settle in quite quickly and become a part of the team.”

Quotes taken from Martin Guptill’s interview to IPLT20.com