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'When Tilak Varma, Hardik bhai and even Tim David were batting, we were still a bit, I won't say worried but concerned.'
Runs flowed like a river during SunRisers Hyderabad's win over Mumbai Indians in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Though SRH posted the highest-ever IPL total of 277/3 and won the game by 31 runs, MI batters showed great fight.
Halfway through MI's innings and till 15 overs of the chase, the Blue and Gold side was alive and kicking due to the left-hander Tilak Varma's 64 in 34 balls, with two fours and three sixes. It was his 84-run partnership with Naman Dhir (30 in 14 balls, with two fours and two sixes) that helped MI reach 150 runs in less than 11 overs and even gave them a shot at chasing down the mammoth total in first place.
And SRH's Abhishek Sharma conceded that the victory wasn't a cakewalk.
Varma took the game deep and, towards the end, Tim David (42 not out off 22) tried his best but it was not enough.
"When Tilak Varma, Hardik bhai and even Tim David were batting, we were still a bit, I won't say worried but concerned. The way they were playing it was very good but we knew our bowlers were very much prepared for this kind of situation and they executed really well," Sharma said.
Speaking at the post-match press conference to the media, David praised Varma saying: "Tilak (Varma) played beautifully. Hitting the ball cleanly is close to the best of what Tilak has got. I say that because I still think he has got more than that as well, and we saw a pretty special inning tonight. Yeah, it is always great to see your teammates playing well down the line; I have a lot of faith that it will result in wins for us."
David added that at the halfway stage they were positive about chasing down the target and eventually came pretty close.
"It would have been pretty good as a spectator if you are sitting home or in the stands it was very entertaining, amazing match.
"We believe in our batting unit. We chased some high scores last year. The talk was let's just stick to our process and we were keeping up with the rate at a certain point of time. Although we didn't get the runs it was a great batting performance from us too," he said.
The Australian, however, credited SRH for their all-round show.
"Credit to SRH, they bowled pretty well at the end, took the pace of the ball on a slowing pitch, it was pretty hard to hit. But everything has to go right if you are to chase 278, that didn't quite happen but we got pretty close," David said.
"They played some amazing shots, credit to their batsmen for putting the pressure on any bowler. There is nothing much you can do to stop them if they play good shots. You got to take (your) hat off when someone plays well."