Mumbai, April 29 (IANS): Mumbai Indians assistant coach Robin Singh heaped praise on skipper Rohit Sharma for his match-winning unbeaten 68 which guided the hosts to a comfortable six-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders.
Batting first, KKR posted a competitive total of 174/5 in 20 overs, thanks to skipper Gautam Gambhir's 45-ball 59. In reply, riding on skipper Rohit's innings alongside Kieron Pollard's quick-fire 17-ball 51 not out, the hosts chased down the target comfortably posting 178/4 in 20 overs.
"No, he is been pretty successful in all formats, if you talk about Test cricket that is different ball game, but in the shorter formats he is one of the top batters after Virat Kohli," Robin Singh said, lauding Rohit Sharma in the post-match press conference here on Thursday night.
"His (Rohit's) game suits this format more than anybody else, he has got fantastic range of strokes, with our team there are lot of so he is able to play his game freely so they know..." Robin said.
The 52-year old also lauded Pollard’s power hitting at the end which helped the MUmbai Indians chase down the target with two overs to spare.
"You saw what he meant today and in previous games. What is really important is that when you have someone like Pollard coming in at the backend and you have Jos Buttler coming in ahead of him, I think oppositions are never safe with any sort of score on the board... as you saw it's just the question of one over, which changes the course of the game. People like Pollard actually you need to have in any team."
"He is with Barbados Trident. He plays in a similar fashion and his cricket has matured over the years. Last season he played similar knocks like this, right? Compared to initially when he came in, he has understood the responsibility as not somebody who can just strike the ball but actually somebody who is critical to the side. More importantly it is sending jitters to the opposition," the former India all-rounder said.
When asked if the toss was a factor, Robin said, "To be very frank, I don't think dew was a factor today, I mean we checked the wicket and outfield when we went out for both the breaks and it was little dew and they had a pretty good start..."
"They (KKR) were 15 runs short where they should have been and 180 was a par score on this track -- minimum 180. They ended up getting 170 despite dropping and we not fielding well, which we probably should have restricted them to 160..."