Mumbai Indians registered a dominating victory over Kings XI Punjab at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

While skipper Rohit Sharma put up a brilliant innings of 70 (45) with the bat, it was the destructive partnership between Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya which paved the way for a total of 191/4 on the board.

The bowlers also exerted the pressure well and kept taking wickets at regular intervals to keep the momentum in MI’s favour. They restricted the KXIP batting to a total of 143/8 in their 20 overs.

Mumbai Indians cricketer Rahul Chahar addressed the media at the post-match press conference. The leg-spinner finished with figures of 2/26.

Q: Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya batted well in the last 4 overs. How critical was it that you put pressure on Kings XI Punjab during that phase?

Chahar: “I think our team has a lot of faith in them, the way they hit the ball and they have been doing it for so many years for Mumbai Indians and if you look at the last match Pollard almost won us the match from a difficult situation against RCB. I think they both are in good form and the team has full faith that they can finish whenever it's needed.”

Q: Jasprit Bumrah and Krunal Pandya both took wickets against the top order. How important was it for you that they struck at the right time?

Chahar: “I think when you take a wicket in the start, the bowler who comes in next doesn’t feel the pressure to bowl a certain ball. He has the freedom to bowl, try taking wickets, use his variations and there is no pressure that I need to stop the runs, so for me, it was very easy. I could attack them.”

Q: You kept it tight while bowling. Something about your spell?

Chahar: “So, I think firstly I had a little help from the wicket, the ball was turning that gave me more confidence. The plan was firstly I needed to control the runs and put pressure on them and the wickets would follow and I was going for the wickets in between, I was giving the ball some flight.”

Q: Was there any surprise that Kings XI Punjab got a bowler like Sheldon Cottrell to quickly finish his spell and according to that, did your batting plans change as they didn’t have any bowlers at the end?

Chahar: “I think the batting plans didn’t change but it wasn’t surprising either because he bowls well with the new ball and we also do that once in a while if someone is bowling well with the new ball, we get him to finish his spell early, so there wasn’t anything surprising.”

Q: Pollard went ahead of Hardik Pandya to bat today, which was different from the earlier strategy. What was the thought behind this?

Chahar: “Our score in the start was very less and Pollard in the last match played a very good inning at the end so we had that trust that if Pollard stays out, we will be able to make a good total.”

Q: Tell us something about your bowling and how you trained before the IPL?

Chahar: “Before the IPL, Mumbai Indians had set up a training camp for us in Mumbai. It rains a lot in Mumbai then so in the open itself they created an indoor area where we trained hard for 2 months. We used that facility properly, so maybe that’s showing the difference and showing that all of us are in touch and inform.”