“He probably felt that there was a bit of a match-up” - Mark Boucher on Rohit Sharma preferring Arjun Tendulkar over Piyush Chawla

Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mark Boucher explained that skipper Rohit Sharma gave the ball to Arjun Tendulkar during the second half of the innings against Punjab Kings (PBKS) as he felt there was a match-up there.

Arjun bowled the 16th over of the innings in the IPL 2023 game against Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday, April 22. He conceded 31 runs, the joint-most expensive over in the ongoing IPL edition - Gujarat Titans (GT) pacer Yash Dayal gave away 31 runs against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

Arjun’s expensive over swung the momentum of the match as PBKS went on to post 214/8 after being asked to bat first. Mumbai responded with 201/6, going down by 13 runs.

While left-arm seamer Arjun bowled three overs for 48 runs, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla did not complete his quota of overs, despite registering excellent figures of 2/15 in his three overs.

At a post-match press conference, Boucher was asked why Rohit preferred Arjun over Chawla. The MI head coach explained:

“I'm sure you know Rohit Sharma is a very experienced cricketer and probably felt at that particular stage, I think it was the 14th or 15th over that Arjun bowled. He probably felt that there was a bit of a match-up at that stage of the game. That's a decision that he made out there.

“Sometimes it may go your way and sometimes they don't go. Unfortunately, it didn't go his way. In hindsight, you probably look at PC (Piyush Chawla) and say yeah, you should have bowled these overs, but sometimes the match-ups don't work. That's just the nature of T20 cricket. So no issues there. And then, for Arjun, it'll be tough on him coming at the back end and bowling at the Wankhede.”

Arjun got the wicket of Prabhsimran Singh (26) with an impressive yorker in his first spell. He was, however, clobbered for four fours and two sixes in his third over, which also included a no-ball and a wide.

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“He'll live and learn from it” - Boucher's words of encouragement for Arjun Tendulkar

Admitting that inexperienced Arjun might have felt some pressure after PBKS' batters decided to take him on, Boucher asserted that the bitter experience would be a good learning curve for him.

The former South African keeper-batter opined:

“He maybe got one or two wrong and they went the full distance. He probably felt like he is under a bit of pressure towards the end. But yeah, he'll live and learn from it. I wouldn't say early days, but it is midway through the IPL and hopefully, he can come back stronger.

"It's how you get up the next morning to conquer those sorts of mishaps that you have and with the full support of not only the support staff but the team, one can try and get over this as quickly as possible and get back on the horse.”

Mumbai Indians will next take on Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, April 25.