Mumbai Indians succumbed to their fourth successive loss in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 on Friday. Riding on Suryakumar Yadav’s blistering unbeaten 68 off 37 balls, the 5-time champions set a 152-run target for the Royal Challengers (RCB) in Pune. However, the heroics of Anuj Rawat (66) and Virat Kohli (48) turned the easy as they took the game home with 9 balls to spare.
MI got off to a flier with a 50-run stand between skipper Rohit Sharma and fellow opener Ishan Kishan. However, the skipper’s wicket started a slide where they lost five wickets in four overs. It was Suryakumar who did the damage repair with yet another IPL fifty.
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Dejected over another loss, MI skipper Rohit Sharma said his teammates are yet to espouse the virtues of collective performance, which he has been harping on since the start of the season. Speaking at the post-match presentation, he admitted that losing his wicket was unfortunate as the pitch was good for stroke-play and his side could have scored more runs.
“We want some of our batters to bat deep – that is one thing we are looking at. If there are runs on the board, then the bowlers have something to defend. We have not done that in the last two games. I have spoken of collective performance, which is missing now. But once we get that, I think we should be good,” Rohit said at the post-match show.
“I got 26 and wanted to bat as long as possible but got out at the wrong time. This was definitely not a 150-pitch, Surya showed us that if you bat sensibly, you could score more – credit to him for getting us to 150,” said Sharma.
Mumbai Indians director of cricket operations, Zaheer Khan, sounded positive despite another loss, saying that just one win was needed to get the momentum back.
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“We have to keep working on the positives because it’s a long season, have to keep things tight and together. Today, there were momentum-shifting situations which we needed to close out,” said Zaheer.
“There are still 10 matches left, we need to get on a roll. It’s a matter of getting that first win, you can start doubting yourself when the pressure is this high but you have to look at a spark in the group. Individuals having a good day need to get us that win,” he added.
MI will look for their maiden win in IPL 2022 when they take on Punjab Kings on April 13.
(With Agency Inputs)
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