Despite Mumbai Indians’ (MI) 10-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Tuesday (April 13), skipper Rohit Sharma reckons his side was 15-20 runs short of the par score.
Opting to bowl first, KKR bundled out the defending champions for 152 in 20 overs. All-rounder Andre Russell demolished the lower order, claiming 5 wickets by conceding 15 runs in his two overs while Pat Cummins (2-24) accounted for a couple of scalps.
In response, however, MI restricted KKR to 142/7 thanks to an all-rounder bowling performance.
"The trend in Chennai is you can't hit from ball one. You have to plan before you go into bat. We were 15-20 runs short. Should have batted well at the fag end. We need to understand how we need to bat at the death but I don't want to take anything away from the boys," Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Knight Riders were cruising in the chase as the duo of Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana put on 72 runs for the opening wicket. Rahul Chahar broke the partnership by removing Gill on 33 and then the leg-spinner ran through KKR’s top-order.
Chahar also dismissed Rana (57), Rahul Tripathi (5), Eoin Morgan (7) to reduce KKR to 122/4. Afterwards, the MI bowlers were all over the opposition batsmen even though Kolkata 31 needed off 30 with 6 wickets in hand.
In the death-overs, Jasprit Bumrah conceded only 12 runs from his last two overs whereas Trent Boult dismissed Andre Russell (9), Pat Cummins (0) and gave away only 4 runs in the final over to restrict KKR to 142/7.
"Was a great fightback, excellent fightback by each one of them. You don't see a game like this often. Lots of confidence from this game and we move forward. KKR batted brilliantly in the powerplay," said Rohit.
"Rahul came and got us crucial wickets in the middle. Krunal bowling those overs at the end was vital as well. It was a complete team effort and credit to all the bowlers. As batters you need to carry on," he added.
Suryakumar Yadav was the lone warrior with the bat for Mumbai Indians, scoring 56 off 36 balls, including 7 fours and 2 sixes.
"SKY has carried his form well. He plays fearless and it's a positive sign for us in the first few overs. We need a guy there to do that. We have done the finishing part well as a team, just that we need to understand the surfaces here and adapt," said Rohit.
Mumbai Indians will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their next game on Saturday (April 17).
(With ANI inputs)
