A long-haired, brawly youngster from Jharkhand who idolised MS Dhoni made his way into the Mumbai Indians team for the first time in 2010. He contributed really well in a star-studded line-up and made a mark for himself. An India debut followed soon and he went on to play for a few more teams in the Indian Premier League thereafter. However, in the auction before the 10th edition, we bought Saurabh Tiwary back into our squad. He got his opportunity to play for us, in our final league game and grabbed it with both hands to score a handy half-century. Tiwary was the man who took the questions from the media after our 100th T20 win.

It has been a long wait for Saurabh Tiwary and he expressed how he felt after he was given this chance and how he prepared throughout the season, leading up to this point. “In our team, even those who don’t play regularly, get frequent net sessions. That helps us because we are in constant touch. The management has done really well and we are always mentally prepared to cash in on whenever we are provided with an opportunity. But, yes, it does get a bit difficult when you sit out for that long and then play a game. As I said, the preparation has been very good. We nearly played our second side, but we have a very good strength and the only reason is that we have had a great preparation throughout the IPL right from the camp. There is a lot of focus on the players who don’t play regularly too. We never felt like we aren’t with the team.

Tiwary was run out after he scored his half-century in a mix-up between him and Rayudu. He admitted to having mis-judged that there wasn’t a single in the offing. “It wasn’t a late reaction. I thought that there was no run there. But, in the last few overs, you have to run on almost every ball. It was my mistake and I should’ve gone for that run, but I didn’t.”

In a surprising move, Rohit Sharma announced that there were many changes in the line-up, six to be exact. Not many teams use this tactic to test the bench strength. Tiwary was asked for the thinking behind the move. “During the playoffs you won’t get the time to make a comeback. You can lose in the league and win a few games to get back into it. In case there is an injury, there won’t be anyone who would be playing his first game. The standards of cricket in the IPL keep improving every year. It may be difficult for someone to come in for a crucial game which could be his first of the season. It isn’t easy to adapt during such situations. It is a good thing that the rest of the players got a chance. It gives a chance to the management to assess and play the best eleven going forward.  The momentum is now in our favour. We are hopeful that we will play well. There is a huge benefit that we will be playing the playoff on our home-ground.

The southpaw had to get used to the pace of the pitch, which wasn’t consistent and the ball was doing a bit too. “Yes, it was a bit two-paced early on. However, it became easier to bat on later. If you compare the first and the second innings, I think it was easier to bat on that surface in the second innings.”

Mumbai has a great record against KKR, we have won 16 games against them. Tiwary was asked about the atmosphere in the dressing room before playing KKR. He was very humble in his reply and mentioned how KKR can’t be taken lightly ever. “KKR is a very good team! If you look at the IPL, they have won two titles and so have we. At no point can we take them lightly because they are a strong side. They are also in the reckoning for the playoff spot.”

Rohit Sharma proved that playing some of our players who were on the bench for a while, wasn’t the same thing as playing a second-string team. The playing XI we fielded tonight beat one of the strongest teams in this season of the IPL – a team that was on a streak of having won 12 consecutive matches chasing. We have finished with the top spot in the points table. Now, we play the first qualifier on Tuesday. A win in that game will take us dirextly into the final. We can expect to play either of Sunrisers Hyderabad or Rising Pune Supergiant, depending on today’s result.