IPL 2020: 'Hardik, Krunal and me form engine room in the Mumbai unit,' says Pollard

Mumbai's power hitter Kieron Pollard on Sunday said that the trio of him, Hardik Pandya, and Krunal Pandya works as the engine room for the Mumbai unit. While Quinton de Kock started the show at the top for Mumbai with a 39-ball 67, it was Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya who helped the team cross the 200-run mark against Hyderabad at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

Pollard hit an unbeaten 25 off 13 balls while Krunal played a 4-ball cameo that saw him pick 20. Additionally, Hardik Pandya made 28 runs off 19 balls. Speaking in the mid-innings break, Pollard said that he and the Pandya brothers go on the field and put the speed on and up the run rate.

"We look at us (him and Pandya brothers) as the engine room in the car without the engine you can't move. We need to go there, put the speed on and up the run rate, some days it will happen some days it won't but when it gets off we have to make sure we make it count. Just petrol, clean petrol (the fuel that gets them going)," he said.

Further opining on defending the total on the relatively smaller ground, Pollard said that there is no room for error and the bowlers need to keep things absolutely tight and bowl in good areas.

"We need to be spot on (with the ball), bowl on the stumps and realise there is not much bounce on the wicket. We have to start well and in the end, we have to use the dimensions even though it is a small ground," he said.

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Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat in their Indian Premier League match against Hyderabad. The team put up a massive total of 208. Mumbai is playing the same side that won them the last game while Hyderabad replaced injured seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar with Sandeep Sharma and Khaleel Ahmed with Siddarth Kaul.

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(with inputs from ANI)