Tendulkar pat for Symmo
Birthday boy Sachin Tendulkar praised Andrew Symonds for his fine batting show in Mumbai Indians' IPL match against Deccan Chargers, describing the Australian as ''a champion batsman''.
Rohit Sharma and Symonds stitched 102 for the unbroken fifth wicket to take MI to a winning total.
“Davy Jacobs gave a very good start and then we lost three wickets. But Rohit batted fantastic and Symonds was batting like a champion,” Tendulkar said after his side beat Deccan by 37 runs.
“172 was a good total but I feel we were short by 20-25 runs. Rohit and Symonds batted in different styles but the champion batsmen they are they took us to a challenging total after we lost three quick wickets,” said Tendulkar.
Mumbai Indians have been shaping up as the best fielding side under the guidance of former South African star Jonty Rhodes and Tendulkar was pleased with another fine show.
“I thought our fielding was brilliant. There were a couple of run-outs and Davy Jacobs produced a great stumping. We have to follow up the good performance in the remaining matches as well,” he said.
Mumbai Indians have played five matches in 15 days and Tendulkar has no complaints though he said he would have loved to have a few more breaks.
“If you are a 38-year-old it is good to have breaks, may be not for a 19-year-old. We have a few youngsters in the team. But to plan for an entire tournament is not an easy job.
“You cannot have every team playing every second day. There will have to be times when you play three games in six days and then you get two games in 10 days. But that is the beauty of this tournament. You adapt to different situations and you learn different things along the way,” said Tendulkar.
Chargers captain Kumar Sangakkara said his bowlers failed to bowl the right line and length the late onslaught by Sharma and Symonds took the game away from his side.
“172 was gettable but they should never have got to that much. We were bowling very well till the 16th over but the 60-odd runs in the last four overs by Rohit and Symonds took the game away from us.
“Rohit and Symonds hit the loose ones out of the park. Our bowlers erred in line and length at the death overs. We talked about it but we failed to execute our plans,” he said.
“Our start in the run chase was not too bad but we lost wickets regularly and had two run-outs. Trying to score 13-14 every over off guys like Lasith Malinga towards the end is very tough,” he said.
Man of the match Malinga remarked, “I always try to go for wickets and I am very happy today. I have told Sachin anytime he wants me to bowl, I am there. It does not matter new ball or old ball. Bowling yorkers with the new ball is difficult, but I try to practise in the nets with both new and old ball.”
