We were confident of defending 171: Mumbai's Pandya

Mumbai, May 15 (IANS) Awarded man-of-the-match for his blistering 31-ball 61, Mumbai Indians (MI) all-rounder Hardik Pandya has said his team was confident that it could defend its total with a good bowling performance against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter.

Mumbai on Thursday night beat Kolkata by five runs to keep play-off hopes alive. Batting first Mumbai posted 171/4 in 20 overs, in reply Kolkata managed 166/7 in 20 overs.

"We were bowling well in the competition; forget the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore. We thought that this score was defendable. Jut we needed to bowl good line and length and finally we did," Pandya said at the post-match press conference here.

The 21-year old credited Kieron Pollard for his magical last over where the West Indian defended 12 runs which helped Mumbai win. Pandya said the over from Pollard was more crucial for their win and not his quickfire half-century.

"Pollard really bowled well. His over was very crucial. Pollard at first got KKR’s Yusuf Pathan out who was playing well and then bowled tight to Piyush Chawla, thus helped us clinch victory," Pandya said.

Speaking on his batting partnership with Pollard, he said, “Pollard was giving me as much strike as possible. He told me to settle down and later on big hitting will follow. 

"We know how big a hitter off the ball Pollard is. I also made the best use of the strike and made fluent runs in the end.'

Mumbai next face Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad on Sunday in a must-win game.