15 May,2009 03:09 PM IST | | PTI
Mumbai Indians' chief mentor Shaun Pollock said it was unfortunate that his team buckled under pressure in the dying moments against defending champions Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League match.
"I think it was a pressure situation," Pollock said when asked what went wrong as his team could not manage four runs from last over yesterday.
"From our side we were just hoping that we would get that one big shot to close the game. Unfortunately we couldn't manage that with new guys coming in No 9, 10 and 11 it became difficult," he was quoted as saying by the official IPL website.
Pollock expressed disappointment that even their experienced middle-order buckled under pressure.
"They have been good batters over the last few years. From our side it is a great disappointment as we have a lot of guys with experience and unfortunately it didn't go our way even when the situation required experience in the centre," he said.
He said the team needed to work on their weakness of failing to finish off close matches.
"Probably we have had some close games which have gone against us. One needs to play these close games and such pressure situations and finish them off. We haven't managed to do that on a couple of occasions. We are not out of it we believe we have got two more games and have a chance to qualify. We have obviously learnt from it," Pollock said.
The former South African cricketer said rival captain Shane Warne's appearance was not a surprise for them and it did not lead to shuffling in batting line-up.
"No it wasn't a surprise for us... we do not take things for granted and We were not worried if he would play or not... you want to play against the best... we were glad to see him at the toss. He brings a lot to the party and unfortunately he brought too much for us today.
"Sachin Tendulkar had some thoughts about how to best combat their bowling attack and with the bowling they had we thought that experience in the middle-order will be the best thing. But at the end of the day, it was not the batting changes at the top order that made the difference.
"We needed six runs from nine balls - and we would win that 99 times out of 100. It is a big blow especially at this stage of the tournament. We must regroup now and focus on the last two games," he said.
On their semi-final prospects, Pollock said, "We have got big teams to play. We have got Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils who are on the top. It will not be easy and it is a big task for us.
"We need to help ourselves and we will do it in the next two matches. We need to get those 15 points to see us through."
He also lavished praised on Munaf Patel for bowling the last over with such a finesse to pull off a difficult win.
"I think Munaf Patel bowled some decent deliveries. And credit goes to him. It was not easy to bowl like that under pressure and they had made some good stops. They did their part and we just couldn't do it."
