IPL 2018, MI vs KXIP: Hardik Pandya Applauds Friend KL Rahul With 'Super Knock By Super Player' Message

Kings XI Punjab opener KL Rahul scored an impressive 94 off 60 balls against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday. KL Rahul's incredible innings went in vain as Kings XI Punjab lost the match by three runs to Mumbai Indians but the Karnataka opener won several hearts for his valiant efforts. Applauding KL Rahul's innings, Mumbai Indians' all-rounder Hardik Pandya took to Twitter and called KL Rahul a super player.

Pandya posted a video where the duo are seen exchanging their team jerseys after the match.

"Play hard, play fair! Respect comes first. Super knock, by a super player and an even better friend @klrahul11," Pandya wrote on his Twitter handle.

Play hard, play fair! Respect comes first. ???

Super knock, by a super player and an even better friend @klrahul11 #MIvKXIP @mipaltan @lionsdenkxip pic.twitter.com/dNvF7BUqn0

— hardik pandya (@hardikpandya7) May 17, 2018

With this victory, Mumbai Indians have moved to fourth position on the points table. They have 12 points in 13 matches.

SunRisers Hyderabad are on top of the points tally with 9 wins and 3 defeats in 12 matches. The Orange Army were the first team to qualify for the play-offs.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings became the second team to enter the main stage of the tournament. They are second on the points tally with 8 wins and four losses.

The defeat left Ravichandran Ashwin's Kings XI Punjab on 12 points with one game to go.

Revealing the reason of swapping jersey with Pandya, Rahul said: "We've seen this happening a lot in football. Obviously, Hardik and I are good friends. I felt it would be nice to collect some jerseys and bring that tradition in cricket.

"We didn't speak about this earlier. As we were talking, I said 'give me your jersey'. He wanted my jersey too. So we exchanged it. It's a nice, nice thing," Rahul said during a video interview with iplt20.com.interview with iplt20.com.