IPL 2020: Mumbai's Rahul Chahar opens up on how pitch assisted the spinners

Mumbai's young spinner Rahul Chahar who scalped two wickets against Punjab said the pitch was helping spinners which built his confidence in the game. The defending champions registered a convincing win by 48 runs at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Thursday. By the virtue of this win, Rohit Sharma & Co. have moved to the summit of the Dream11 IPL 2020 points table. 

Chahar finished his spell with figures of  2-26 from his four overs. 

'There was help for the spinners': Rahul Chahar

"There was help for the spinners in the pitch and I was gaining confidence from it. My plan was to add pressure on them by giving less run and then attack for wickets. I was trying for the wickets," Chahar said in the post-match conference.

Meanwhile, the young spinner also heaped praise on Mumbai's solid middle-order as well.

"We have a lot of faith in big-hitting skills of Pollard and Hardik. Pollard almost took us to the victory in the last game against RCB. They are in good form and they can finish games in any situation," the spinner said.

Mumbai get back to winning ways

The defending champions posted a stiff total of 191/4 after being put into bat by Punjab skipper KL Rahul. Captain Rohit Sharma top-scored with a brilliant 45-ball 70 at a strike rate of 155.6 including eight boundaries and three maximums. Kieron Pollard (47*) and Hardik Pandya (30*) made some stellar contributions in the middle-order towards the backend of the innings. 

In reply, the 2014 finalists never gained momentum in their run chase as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were eventually restricted to 143/8. Nicholas Pooran (44) and Krishnappa Gowtham (22*) did manage to offer some resistance but all they could do was delay the inevitable.

(Image Courtesy: IPL)

READ: IPL 2020: Zaheer Khan Hails Mumbai Players For Absorbing Pressure Post Win Against Punjab

(With ANI Inputs)