Image Credit- AFP
Manish Pandey finally had his turn to speak out for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2024 on Friday. He has been waiting for this occasion.
After being summoned to bat, KKR’s top order collapsed, so he went out as an impact player and scored a 31-ball 42. That may not sound like much in an IPL as high scoring as this one, but it was crucial to KKR’s victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) that evening at the Wankhede, as they defeated MI by 24 runs.
Pandey walked out at No. 7 with KKR tottering at 57 for 5 and his 83-run stand with Venkatesh Iyer, who top-scored with a 52-ball 70, took KKR to 169 before they bowled MI out for 145.
“Certainly this impact-player rule it has specifically helped us in this game, and Manish, he’s been eyeing for an opportunity right from game one but today he got one and he capitalised on it,” KKR captain Shreyas Iyer said on the official broadcast after the game.
“It was fantastic to see him go out there and basically build on the partnership with Venky, who has been phenomenal on this wicket and, yeah, we got to a commendable total. All I had to say to the boys [was] that if we have got here, we can defend it with our bowling lineup and that’s what we did.”
Player of the Match Venkatesh stated that Pandey and himself needed to rebuild even though they weren’t scoring much in order to spare players like Andre Russell from death.
“This is the fourth or fifth time where Manish has padded up, but this time he eventually got to bat,” Venkatesh said. “Yeah, that’s the plan obviously. With the impact-player rule, if you see a collapse, you can get a batter in, and he can add to the score.”
Asked if giving up the impact-player option within the first quarter of the game was wise, Venkatesh said, “It was very important at that time. With Russell and Ramandeep [Singh] coming in a situation where they don’t play, it was better for someone like Manish to come in and accelerate. And he did well as well.