Disappointed at his team's bowling at the death overs, Kolkata Knight Riders' Manish Pandey said they needed to improve in this aspect of the game after Mumbai Indians pulled off a thrilling four-wicket win in an Indian Premier League game here.
"Even in the first game (against Gujarat Lions), we struggled with death bowling. I thought we can improve a little more. Two games in a row, and it is high time we start thinking and applying our mind about this in the meeting," said Pandey in his post-match media conference at the Wankhede Stadium.
MI needed 64 in the final 30 balls but pulled off a sensational victory with one ball to spare, by riding on youngsters Nitish Rana and Hardik Pandya's counter-attack, after being reduced to 119 for 5 at the beginning of the 17th over.
"If bowlers hit yorkers consistently, it would be obviously difficult for the batsmen. They missed a few, we missed a few. They played very well in the end and we have to work a bit more on death bowling. We shall overcome this," Pandey said last night. "It looked like we might win, but the two batsmen — Hardik (Pandya) and (Nitish) Rana — played really well. We could have bowled with a little more plan. We will bounce back," he said confidently. Pandey felt Pandya is growing slowly and steadily in confidence.
"He is a very good player and coming up to be a very good all-rounder. We have seen how he has batted and finished games for India at number 7. Slowly he has matured as a player. He is gaining in confidence from all these matches."