Hardik Pandya: Not much to say about this defeat.

Delhi: Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Mumbai Indians by 12 runs in an exciting match in the 20th match of IPL 2025. Batting first, RCB set a huge target of 221 runs in 20 overs. In response, Mumbai Indians worked hard, but they failed to win the match. RCB bowlers performed brilliantly in the final over, which won their team. This victory is special for RCB, as they have defeated Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium after 10 years.

Hardik Pandya said after the match that it was a run-fest. The wicket was very good and I told myself that we again lagged behind two shots, and I do not want to say much on it.

Wicket position

Talking about the wicket position, he said, “There was not much space for the bowlers to hide here. It was easy to score on the wicket and all this depended on the execution of the bowlers. Hardik said that you can stop the batsmen, but do not want to make harsh comments on the bowlers. It was a difficult track and we did not have much option.

Batting at number 3

Hardik also talked about batting at number 3. He told that in the original structure of the team, salutations always batted below. Last time, when Rohit Sharma was not available, someone had to send up and the player like Naman who can play in all departments was sent up. When Rohit returned, Naman was sent down again.

Tilak Verma’s brilliant batting

Hardik praised Tilak Verma’s batting and said that he was fantastic. A lot had happened in the last match and people were talking a lot about it, but people do not know that Tilak suffered a very severe injury a day ago. It was a thought decision, but due to his injury, the coach felt that it would be better to send a new player. Today he played the best.

Importance of powerplay and death overs

Describing Powerplay as important, Hardik said that powerplays are very important in such matches. In some overs, we could not score good runs, causing difficulties in our run-chase. It depended on the execution of the death overs, but we could not play those balls well.

Contribution of Jaspreet Bumrah

Hardik also spoke on the contribution of Jaspreet Bumrah. He said that players like Bumrah can make any team special. He came and did his work, and was happy to see him in the team.

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