Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya agreed with Virat Kohli’s opinion on the importance of partnerships in the Indian Premier League 2025. He commented after MI’s 100-run win over Rajasthan Royals, their seventh of the 18th season. They reached the top of the table on the basis of net run rate, with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in second place.
Apart from the fifties from Ryan Rickelton and Rohit Sharma, Hardik and Suryakumar Yadav added 48 runs each to the total of 217/4 in 20 overs. Rajasthan couldn’t match them in their reply and were bowled out for 117 runs, with Trent Boult and Karn Sharma dismissing three batters each. Jasprit Bumrah conceded just 15 runs from 4 overs and took two scalps.
Hardik was on cloud 9 with the continued success of the five-time champions.
‘Near-perfect game for us. We were superb with the bat and clinical with the ball. There was value for shots we played as a team. Ryan and Rohit gave us the platform, and Surya and I capitalized on it. We don’t decide about our batting order in advance as everything depends on the match situation,” Hardik said.
“People are now going back to batsmanship, and the partnerships have become important. Even in the bowling department, my work becomes easy because of the experience of the bowlers. I don’t tell them anything. My job is just to bring in a bowler in a particular situation. However, we have to be humble and give consistent performances,” he added.
Virat had spoken about singles and doubles and why it is important to stitch partnerships after RCB’s victory over RR. “I make sure singles and doubles don’t stop. It is not easy to hit from ball one this season, and stitching partnerships have become important. People don’t understand that you can’t take on the bowlers from the start, and it is important to spend time in the middle,” he had said.
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