'He will live and learn from it' - Mark Boucher backs Arjun Tendulkar following nightmare over against PBKS

Mumbai Indians' three-match winning streak came to a halt after an inspired performance from the Punjab Kings at the Wankhede. While Punjab's Arshdeep Singh took home the plaudits for his breathtaking death-bowling exploits, Arjun Tendulkar became the talking point after his 31-run over in the first innings. 

Sam Curran's Punjab Kings struggled in the first half of their first innings, but Arjun Tendulkar's expensive 15th over, where he conceded 31 runs, gave the visitors the ascendency in the latter stages of the first innings. However, Mumbai Indians' head coach Mark Boucher feels that the game against Punjab Kings will prove to be a learning curve for the youngster.

“It will be tough on him (Arjun), coming in to bowl at the back end at Wankhede where the conditions were good to bat on. He, may be, got one or two (deliveries) wrong, he probably felt under the pressure but he will live and learn from it. 

It is not the end of the world; it is still not the early days but mid-days in the IPL and, hopefully, he will come back stronger. He has full support of the support staff and players to try and get over this as quickly as possible,” Boucher said to the reporters in the post-match press conference after Punjab’s victory.

Sometimes the match-ups do not work and that is just the nature of T20 cricket: Boucher

The former South African cricketer also backed his skipper Rohit Sharma's decision to bowl the young left-arm pacer in the latter stages of the match. Boucher stated that things like these happen in the shortest format of the game but the team is still backing the decision of the skipper and the 23-year-old pacer.

“I think Rohit, who is a very experienced cricketer, felt that he would bowl Arjun at the 14th-15th over. That was a better match-up at that stage in the game. Sometimes, they (decisions) go your way and sometimes they do not. Unfortunately, it did not go his way, and, in hindsight, sometimes the match-ups do not work and that is just the nature of T20 cricket," Boucher stated further.