IPL 2017: 5 instances when Rohit Sharma got out to a leg spinner
Mumbai Indians lost their match against Kings XI Punjab by a narrow margin of seven runs. This defeat is of little consequence to Mumbai as they have already qualified for the play-offs but one issue which was highlighted in this game could trouble them once again.
Mumbai’s captain Rohit Sharma yet again got out to a leg spinner in the match and that too in the early phase of his innings. In this year’s IPL, Sharma is going through a lean patch but importantly his struggle against leg spinners is something which is hurting Mumbai fans a lot. Out of his 11 dismissals this season, five have come against leg spinners.
Here we look at those instances in this year’s IPL when a leg-spinner dismissed the Mumbai captain.
#5 Versus Imran Tahir, RPS - April 6
Rohit Sharma’s troubles against leg spinners started from the very first match of this year. Against Rising Pune Supergiant he got out to Imran Tahir.
Sharma came to the crease after the opening pair gave Mumbai a solid start. The Mumbai skipper, in the initial phase, looked to get his eye in and hence was focusing only on rotating the strike. However, in the seventh over of the innings, Tahir came up with an excellent plan against him and in the end, got his wicket.
The South African leg-spinner bowled the first delivery with some flight and invited Sharma to come on the front foot. On the next ball, he offered some dip and forced Sharma to miss the line of the ball. The ball took the inside edge of Sharma’s bat and luckily for him, it landed safely.
These two deliveries were enough to plant doubts in the mind of the right-hand batsman and hence while playing the third ball, he was in two minds and didn’t know whether to go on the front foot or the back foot.
As a result, he completely misread the googly and the ball crashed on to his stumps after finding a gap between his bat and pad. Sharma scored only three runs from seven balls in the inning.