Mumbai Indians will go into Monday's Champions League T20 fixture with only a day's rest since its previous game in Chennai.
Opponent Trinidad & Tobago, in contrast, will have had five. This, however, would not unduly disadvantage Mumbai felt opener Aiden Blizzard. “I don't think it will hurt us too much,” he said here on Sunday.
“We have been training for this since we finished the IPL. We will have a light training session now and then have a look at their videos. I think we will be running on adrenaline after our win last night over Chennai.”
Blizzard also revealed that the team had been visited by South African adventurer Mike Horn, someone Gary Kirsten had also brought in to help motivate the Indian side during the World Cup.
“We were lucky enough to have Mike Horn come in and spend some time with us,” he said. “He is an extreme sportsman. He has been to the North Pole, Antarctica, he has swum the Amazon. The things that he has gone through are all about the mental challenge that he had. To live for three months in complete darkness is something that not many people in the world will experience. We took a lot out of it just with facing adversity, like we were facing last night against Chennai. So our mental preparation has been really good.”
Trinidad & Tobago's Ravi Rampaul, meanwhile, agreed that playing against Kieron Pollard would serve as extra motivation. “Having Pollard in the opposition does encourage us to play hard and end up on the winning side,” he said. “When we came to know that we were playing Mumbai Indians, all of our guys were excited.”
Rampaul also felt upcoming games would be harder than the two qualifying matches his side won. “We had prepared well on those two teams but now our focus has changed. It is important that we don't get overconfident and stick to our basics. The teams we have to face now will be tough.” — Sports Reporter
