'No excuses; GT showed us how to bowl on that wicket'

'We understood the wicket was black soil and I don't think we just didn't adjust nicely enough.'

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Gujarat Titans pacer Prasidh Krishna celebrates with Mohammed Siraj and Shubman Gill after dismissing Mumbai Indians's Suryakumar Yadav during the Indian Premier League match at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday.

IMAGE: Gujarat Titans pacer Prasidh Krishna celebrates with Mohammed Siraj and Shubman Gill after dismissing Suryakumar Yadav of Mumbai Indians during the Indian Premier League match at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday. Photograph: BCCI

Mumbai Indians senior pacer Trent Boult said the Gujarat Titans bowlers made good use of the black soil pitch at the Narendra Modi stadium and successfully tied up the batters by taking the pace off the ball.

Hosts Gujarat Titans beat Mumbai Indian by 36 runs in their IPL match in Ahmedabad after posting 196 for 8 on Saturday, as dew did not come into the picture.

"Good tactics from the opposition. If you have those options to do that, it obviously makes sense, but I don't think we'll be using it as an excuse," Boult said at the post-match press conference.

"There are players in our team that have played all over the country on all different types of wickets. So, in all honesty, just an off-game tonight. I thought they (GT) scrapped their way to a good total and they showed us how to bowl on that wicket. So full credit to them," Boult added.

The track used for the game was black soil instead of the red one, but the seasoned Kiwi refused to use it as an excuse.

"I think it was just good thinking of using home tactics to your advantage. Obviously, there should be an advantage for the home team. But, like I said, not an excuse from our point of view. We understood the wicket was black soil and I don't think we just didn't adjust nicely enough," Boult said.

Set a challenging target of 197, MI were stopped at 160 for six in their allotted 20 overs.

"Well, they got 36 more runs than us. That's what went wrong. I think we can just be 1 or 2 percent better. They took the pace out of the ball, making the batters play big shots combined with scoreboard pressure, that's just good cricket."

Boult also conceded that their team was not up to the standards on the field.

"I think the fielding is a part of the game that can never be excused. I think we're a little bit off the field today. Take a catch there on the boundary. Save a couple of boundaries. You know, there's maybe 20 or 30 runs there. So, yeah, time to move on and look forward to doing that."