“Watch the ball hard and play cricketing shots” – The Monank-Pooran mantra
By MI New York Media
Thanks to a successful chase against the LA Knight Riders with over two overs to spare, MI New York have kept themselves in the hunt for a playoff spot. Monank Patel, with his fourth half-century of the season, continued his golden run. He was at the post-match press conference, sharing what went on in the middle. Excerpts ..
On his learnings from Sherfane Rutherford’s innings
I thought if you saw his game, he started playing ground shots. He took time to start his innings. Then he started playing cricketing shots. We had a conversation after the first innings. We knew our bowlers did a great job. 150 on this pitch, I thought they were 15-20 runs short. That gave us time to play calculated shots. The plan for me initially was to back my strengths and play along the ground. It allowed myself to read the pitch and built a good partnership between myself and (Nicholas) Pooran.
On the chat with Pooran in the middle
We kept is very simple. We just wanted to watch the ball hard and play cricketing shots. When Sunil Narine was bowling, we knew he came in to look for wickets. We didn’t want to try too much. Just wanted to rotate the strike and convert the bad balls.
Reason behind his consistent run this season
It’s always good to contribute towards the team. MINY has retained me for three seasons and it’s my time to give them back. I’m trying to stay hungry and continue my form.
On his conversations with Mark Boucher
He shared a few things at the start of the tournament and gave us self-belief. He told us local players to own the tournament. The self-belief he gave really helped me. It was the perfect platform in this game for me. I just wanted to make sure I played at the other end. I knew we had left-right combinations till the fifth wicket. I knew Pooran, Bracewell and Pollard can hit whenever they want. So I just wanted to make sure I took the responsibility to play at least 40-50 balls.
Thoughts on the chances of making it to the playoffs
Firstly, we are going to enjoy this win. We still have a one day rest, we’ll have a proper recovery and have the same mindset when we come to the ground. Every game is a must-win game and we’ll focus on one game at a time. We are playing the same team again, so we know what our plans are and we’ll just look to execute them.
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