‘Good tactics by GT’

Mumbai Indians’ senior pacer Trent Boult said the Gujarat Titans bowlers made good use of the black soil pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium and successfully tied up the MI batters by taking the pace off the ball.

Hosts GT beat MI by 36 runs in their IPL match after posting 196 for eight here on Saturday, as dew did not come into the picture.

“Good tactics from the opposition. If you have those options to do that, it obviously makes sense, but I don’t think we’ll be using it as an excuse,” Boult said at the post-match press conference.

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GT pacer Prasidh Krishna (left) celebrates with Mohd Siraj after dismissing MI’s Tilak Varma on Saturday. Pic/AFP

“There are players in our team that have played all over the country on all different types of wickets. So, in all honesty, just an off game tonight, I thought they [GT] scrapped their way to a good total and they showed us how to bowl on that wicket. So full credit to them,” Boult added.

The track used for the game was black soil instead of the red one, but the seasoned Kiwi refused to use it as an excuse. “I think it was just good thinking of using home tactics to your advantage. Obviously, there should be an advantage for the home team. But like I said, not an excuse from our point of view. We understood the wicket was black soil and I don’t think we just didn’t adjust nicely enough,” Boult said.

Set a challenging target of 197, MI were stopped at 160 for six in their allotted 20 overs. “Well, they got 36 more runs than us. That’s what went wrong. I think we can just be 1 or 2 percent better. They took the pace out of the ball, making the batters play big shots combined with scoreboard pressure, that’s just good cricket,” Boult said.

He also conceded that their team was not up to the standards on the field. “I think the fielding is a part of the game that can never be excused. I think we were a little bit off in the field. Take a catch there on the boundary. Save a couple of boundaries. You know, there’s maybe 20 or 30 runs there. Time to move on,” Boult said. 

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