IPL, Jos Buttler, Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma [Image-IPLT20]

Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma rued the lack of enough runs on the board after the five-time champions succumbed to their second consecutive defeat in Chennai against the KL Rahul-led Punjab Kings.

On what was another sluggish Chennai pitch, the Mumbai Indians once again failed to put a competitive score in the board and while the pitch presented a huge challenge to all the batters, Sharma, who scored a brilliant 52-ball 63, reckoned that it wasn’t that bad a pitch and that they should have got a total between 150-160.

Mumbai Indians never really got going in their innings. In Chennai, making use of the powerplay is paramount to get a competitive score but the defending champions failed to do so as they managed a mere 21 runs with their only boundary coming on the 30th delivery.

With the middle-order already out of form, it was always going to be a herculean task to get a final flourish once Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav were dismissed in successive overs.

”Not enough runs. I still feel it is not a bad wicket to bat on. You saw how Punjab Kings batted and won the game with 9 wickets in hand. It is just the application which is missing in our batting. If you get 150-160 on this wicket then you are always in the game, that is something we failed to do in the last two games. You can look at it either way, I thought their bowlers bowled well in the powerplay, Ishan was trying to hit but couldn’t get it and even I was not able to hit. We have batted well in the powerplay previously but today we failed to do so,” Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation.

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Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, Ishan Kishan
Ishan Kishan dismissed for a 17-ball 6 [Image-IPLT20]
Rohit Sharma also opened up about the team management’s decision to send an out-of-form Ishan Kishan over Suryakumar Yadav at the No.3 spot.

Rohit reckoned that the motive behind holding back Suryakumar Yadav was that they wanted someone who is a good player of spin to bat in the middle-overs.

The move, obviously, backfired as Ishan Kishan endured a horror time at the crease, managing just 6 runs off 17 balls before nicking off to KL Rahul.

”Something is missing in our batting line-up, we are not able to bat 20 overs in the fashion we want and something that we have to look at and see what we can do. It was just a tactical thing, we wanted someone who would bat well against the spinners in the middle and SKY was the one to do that. But when you play on such a challenging pitch then you have to be ready for all the possibilities. When you try, if it works it looks good and if it doesn’t work then it looks bad, but we always back the decision we make. We are not putting enough effort on the field and when the conditions are tough you need to understand how you need to bat and how you need to bowl,” he said.

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Mumbai Indians have now lost three of their first five games in IPL 2021 but they will be relieved that the Chennai leg of their campaign is over. They will now travel to Delhi where they will lock horns with Rajasthan Royals in six days’ time.

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