New Delhi, April 5 -- Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya did not make the controversial decision to retire Tilak Varma in the second-last over of the run chase against Lucknow Super Giants on Friday. The revelation came during a post-match press conference by MI coach and former Sri Lanka great Mahela Jayawardhane, who remarked that it was "not nice" to remove Varma but it had to be done.

Notably, Varma became only the fourth player in IPL history to be 'Retired Out' after being called back by Mumbai Indians off the second last ball of the 19th over. Varma was replaced at the crease by Mitchell Santner, who faced just 2 balls and failed to make much of an impact on the innings.

Varma was batting on 25 off 23 balls when he was called b...