It Was A Sensational Bowling Effort From Alzarri Joseph: Rohit Sharma
Credits: IPL

Rohit Sharma would have feared the worst when Mumbai Indians finished their innings against Sunrisers Hyderabad on a modest 136 for 7. Against a team which was scoring runs for fun this season, the total was never going to be challenging. Sunrisers’ skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s decision to bowl first turned out to be right one as Mumbai was never allowed to get the impetus during the innings.

Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock could add just 21 runs before Mohammad Nabi sent back the former. From thereon, Mumbai kept losing wickets at regular intervals.  At one stage, they were reeling at 65 for 5 and even the 100-run mark was looking like a distant dream.

However, Kieron Pollard made the most of his recent form and blasted 46 off just 26 deliveries to give his team something to fight for.

Well, the score turned out to be more than enough for Mumbai to pull off a sensational 40-run win. After Pollard, another Windies player – Alzarri Joseph – starred with the ball on his debut to blow away the table-toppers. The right-arm pacer grabbed 6 for just 12 runs as Sunrisers were all out for a paltry 96. The Sunrisers could not even last the entire 20 overs as Alzarri ran riot on his debut. Those figures broke an IPL record that had stood since the very first season, bettering Sohail Tanvir’s 6 for 14.

Speaking at the end of the game, a delighted Rohit Sharma said he was very pleased with the win.

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“Yes, very pleased. Winning the game is obviously a great result. I thought 136 wasn’t a great batting effort, but we bowled in the right areas, kept them guessing all the time and held our nerves. We were in the game till the last ball which is what we spoke of,” said Rohit Sharma.

He then turned his focus on Alzarri, lavishing praise on the 22-year old speedster before opening up on the team’s plans.

“It was a sensational bowling effort from Alzarri, to bowl like this in first game. He’s come in on a lot of confidence from the CPL and he’s carrying it here. We didn’t bat well to start with, kept losing wickets and we knew after a few overs that it wasn’t a 170-180 pitch. The pitch was under covers for a day, it was raining as well and the wicket was a bit sticky. So we knew that 140 would be a good score to defend because we’ve got the quality in our bowling and we back them to defend whatever we get,” he said.

 

 

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