Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mahela Jayawardene reckons that he has no concerns regarding the batting form of skipper Rohit Sharma in the IPL 2022. Rohit has amassed 108 runs in five innings at 21.60 and a strike rate of 133.33. In the match against Punjab Kings on Wednesday, Rohit started with a four and six off Vaibhav Arora in the first over of Mumbai Indians’ 199-run chase. However, he was dismissed by Kagiso Rabada for 17-ball 28.
During the post-match press conference, Mahela Jayawardene said, “If you look at the way he starts, the way he hits the ball, it’s brilliant. He’s timing it, he’s getting some really, really good starts. Yes, he’s disappointed as well, that he’s not being able to convert them. We’ve seen Rohit batting deep, batting for 14-15 overs, and getting those big scores. It’s just a matter of time. He’s a quality player and I am not concerned about the form as such.”
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At one stage, MI was looking good to chase down eth total of 199 against PBKS as young guns Dewald Brevis (49) and Tilak Varma (36) almost set the tone with an 84-run partnership for the third wicket. The South African youngster missed his maiden IPL fifty by a whisker as he couldn’t pick the short ball off Odean Smith. In the 13th over, Tilak Varma was run out by Mayank Agarwal and Arshdeep Singh at the non-striker’s end after a miscommunication with Suryakumar Yadav.
Three overs later Kieron Pollard also got run out despite being reluctant for the second run insisted by SKY. Suryakumar clobbered a couple of sixes to Vaibhav Arora but couldn’t finish the job for MI as he fell to Kagiso Rabada in the penultimate over. MI needed 22 runs in the final over. Jaydev Unadkat smashed Smith for a six on the first ball but the latter picked three wickets to defend the score.
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Talking about the game, Mahela Jayawardene said, “The two young guys, we know what they are capable of. So given them a bit of freedom to go and control that situation, so that Polly and Surya are able to chase that. That was the initial thinking. It’s a call that we will take depending on how we’ve set up tactically against certain opposition.”
Mumbai Indians will play Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 16 at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
