Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma on Wednesday (6th April) reflected on the loss against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 14 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Rohit said that he didn’t expect Pat Cummins to come out and bat the way he did to take the game away from his side.
MI suffered a stunning 5-wicket loss at the hands of KKR in Pune. Asked to bat first, the Rohit Sharma-led side didn’t have a good start as they struggled with their timing and lost the skipper early in the third over for just 3 runs.
Debutant Dewald Brevis then set the stage on fire with his cameo of 29 runs. MI found themselves in trouble when they lost Ishan Kishan (14) in the 11th over and were reduced to 55/3.
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However, after that Suryakumar Yadav (52) and young Tilak Varma (38*) formed a formidable partnership and took KKR bowlers to the cleaners to rescue their side’s innings. They stitched an 83-run partnership before Kieron Pollard blasted a 5-ball 22* to help his side post a total of 161 runs on the board after a slow start.
The Rohit-led side then started decently with the ball and took wickets at regular intervals to reduce KKR to 101/5. But after that Pat Cummins took the game away from them. The right-hander scored 35 runs off Daniel Sams' bowling in the 16th over and took his side home with four overs to spare.
The Australian Test captain finished with 56* off just 15 balls, hammering four fours and six sixes and also equalled the record of the fastest fifty in the history of IPL. He also notched up 61 runs partnership with Venkatesh Iyer, who scored unbeaten 50 runs.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Rohit Sharma admitted that he never expected Pat Cummins to come and play as he did. He talked about the pitch also, saying that it got better to bat as the game went on.
"Never expected him to come and play like that [on Cummins]. Lot of credit. The pitch got better and better to bat as the game went on. It was holding up initially. Overall it was a good pitch," Rohit Sharma said.
Rohit said that although they scored over 70 runs in the last 4-5 overs, they didn’t start well with the bat.
He added that they had the game in their hands till the 15th over but Cummins changed the course of the match. He remarked that it was only a matter of one wicket for them but they didn't bowl accordingly to the plans.
"With the bat we did not start well, in the last 4-5 overs to get 70+ was a great effort from the batting unit. We did not bowl according to the plan. We had the game till the 15th over, but then Cummins was brilliant.
“Whenever you have runs on the board, we always have the upper hand, We had them 5-down, it was just a matter of the wicket of Venky or Pat, they had Sunil who could smash them,” he said.
Rohit further quipped that this loss will be hard to digest for them and they need to do a lot of hard work to come out with the right results.
"This will be hard to digest, the way it turned out in the last few overs. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us. I don't want to be in this position all the time [frustrated smile]," he said.
Mumbai Indians will next face Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday (9th April) at MCA Stadium in Pune.
(Star Sports inputs)
