Whatever I had, it had to do: RCB -hero Krunal Pandya

Mumbai, April 7 (Pti) Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Allrounder Krunal Pandya, admitted to digging deep in his decade-long experience of playing the game to help his team Mumbai Indians beat 12 runs in a thriller thriller on Monday. Just when it seemed that Mumbai -Indians would chase a steep target of 222 with Hardik Pandya, 42, and Tilak Varma, 56, who batted with cruelty, Krunal kept his calm and grabbed three three wickets lately to take the wind out of the house team, and managed to bind them for nine. “The amount of games I have played over the past ten years, regardless of the experience I had, had to do it. Sometimes you want to commit, but you know it is important to commit 100 percent,” says Krunal, who returned excellent figures from 4 for 45 to the match. “So the execution becomes a lot on your side. I was clearly in a way where I wanted to fully commit to whatever ball I wanted to bowl,” Krunal added when RCB clinched their first win in the shank stadium in ten years. With his binding with brother Hardik, who hit some high shots and was about to take away the match with his 15-ball beat of RCB, Krunal said the two cherishes the love they have for each other. “The bond we have at the end of the day we knew that only one (Pandya) would win. But the love and affection we have for each other is very natural. He (Hardik) beat well. We won, and I also wanted to win, he also wanted to win. I feel for him,” Krunal said. Krunal added that RCB captain Rajat Patidar always returned his players, one of the reasons why they started so strongly in IPL 2025. RCB is currently third with six points out of four games, while MI has only two out of five games. “Rajat was tremendous as he started.” A captain who gives you comfort gives you the ball and supports your game plan. Sometimes you want it as a bowler. “He has a calm behavior, does not make things complicated. Well played under him. Jitesh (Sharma, 40 not out) was great, he improved his game. The game awareness while the batting was the highest point, and with the gloves he was always tremendous. “Or RCB can break the IPL Jinx this time, Krunal said,” I don’t want to say it at the end of the season, but we all know what you want at the end of the season. Just want to keep my head and keep winning. “Mi captain Hardik said there wasn’t much his bowlers could do to stop the flow of the runs on this surface.” It was a run. The wicket was really good. I just talked to myself about it. We were lacking with two hits, don’t know what to say. The way the wicket was, the bowlers didn’t really have much room to hide. “It came down to execution. You can stop the fighters, but I don’t want to be hard on the bowlers. It was a difficult track, not many options. 5-10, maybe 12 runs I can say (we admitted more),” he said. However, he was fortunate that Jasprit Bumrah was back in the side after recovering from an injury. ‘When he (Bumrah) makes this team, every team in the world really makes special. He came and did his job, very happy to have him. In life, never back, always see the positive side of it. ‘ The message will be very clear: Go out there and try to play the best cricket of your life. We support them all and hope the result comes our way, ‘he added.