Krunal Pandya smashed an unbeaten 31 off 12 balls to guide Mumbai Indians to victory against Kings XI Punjab at Holkar Stadium, Indore, on Friday. Pandya added 56 runs in the company of skipper Rohit Sharma as we chased the 175-run target with an over to spare.

Pandya said he felt happy about his effort with the bat, especially because he couldn’t take us home in the previous match against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mumbai Indians were in a similar situation in Bangalore a few days ago, but the batsmen didn’t come good in the final overs. As a result, we lost to Virat Kohli & Co. by 14 runs.

However, Friday was different. When Pandya joined Sharma in the middle, we were 55 away from victory. And there were just 27 balls left. But Pandya and Sharma turned on the style with an unbridled assault on Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Andrew Tye and, finally, Marcus Stoinis.

“Personally, I am very happy. In the last game against RCB, we had a similar equation. In the last five overs, we needed some 60 runs. I failed to deliver on that occasion. So, I was even more motivated for this game because I wanted to win it for the team. It’s nice that I helped the team win this one,” Pandya said.

Pandya said the bowlers did well to restrict KXIP to 174/6. “The ground is comparatively smaller and the wicket wasn’t that bad. So, I guess, 175 was a total that we could chase easily. I remember the last time we played here, the target was 196. And we chased it in 14-15 overs. The kind of batting strength we have, I think it was an easy target to chase,” he said.

Pandya also said that the dimensions of the ground more than made up for the slowness in the wicket. “The pitch wasn’t a bad one. It was a good batting wicket. It was a little bit on the slower side. It wasn’t exactly a flat one. But the ground is so small that it compensates for the nature of the wicket. So, I guess it’s nice that we won finally. Now on, all our matches are do-or-die affairs. It started with today’s match. I’m glad we have started on a winning note. We would like to continue this performance,” he said.

Asked why he bowled just one over, Pandya said, “The team comes before an individual. Whenever there’s a situation for me to bowl, I do. Today, there were two left-handers, Chris Gayle and Yuvraj Singh, in the middle. So, at that point in time, a left-arm spinner couldn’t be asked to bowl. Sometimes you bowl, sometimes you don’t, but what matters in the end is the team’s cause. So I’m happy that we won because that was the priority,” he said.

Pandya said the team was feeling confident at the innings break. “Like I said, any target is achievable on this ground. It’s a high-scoring ground. So, when we were in the dugout, we never felt that the target was tough to achieve. We always had the belief,” he said.

Asked why skipper Sharma batted at No. 5, Pandya said, “After tonight’s result, I hope you have an idea why Rohit comes down the order. He belted two sixes in an over and hit three boundaries. That was the turning point in the match. So, if you look at the positives, we won because of Rohit. Again, it depends on the situation. It depends on the combination. In our team, any batter can come and play at any position. As batsmen, we’re quite flexible. We can play at any position.”