As Mumbai Indians (MI) suffered another collapse from 76/3 to 137/9, skipper, Rohit Sharma reckons that their middle-order failed to do well again and they should have batted better in the middle-overs. While acknowledging that dew was there, Rohit asserted that the team needs to play smart cricket to win games.
When Rohit Sharma was dismissed by Amit Mishra, MI was cruising at 76/3 in the 9th over of the innings on a sticky wicket of Chennai. However, after this dismissal, none of the batsmen barring Ishan Kishan manage to stay at the crease for longer as in the span of just a couple of overs, the trio of – Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, and Kieron Pollard – went back to the pavilion to leave MI reeling at 84/6.
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Despite an outstanding bowling performance, where they stretched the game till the final over, the lack of runs on board cost Mumbai a crucial win over Delhi. During the post-match presentation, Rohit said, “After the start we got we should have batted better in the middle overs. It is happening time and again. We aren’t able to capitalize on our starts and we need to understand as a batting unit. But you have to give credit to the Delhi bowlers, they kept it tight and kept taking wickets.”
We gave it our all defending 138 but it wasn't meant to be 💔
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) April 20, 2021
Rohit Sharma, who wasn’t visible on the field for a large part of the second innings felt dew played a major role as well. Despite the conditions against them, the 33-year-old insisted that playing ‘smart cricket’ will help the franchise win the games.
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MI skipper explained, “We knew dew would come in but we have seen that it’s not all that difficult to grip the ball in the last few games. Dew isn’t the factor, we need to play smart cricket to win games which we didn’t do today. [On his injury] It’s only a niggle. It should be fine.” Talking about him missing the action, Rohit said, “It’s just a small niggle, should be okay.”
