"Surya showed us if you bat sensibly, you can get more runs" - Rohit Sharma believes MI once again scored below par in loss against RCB in IPL 2022
Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma lamented poor batting in their seven-wicket loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the MCA Stadium in Pune. The five-time champions joined Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the bottom of the points table, with both having four losses against their names.
That's that from Match 18 as @RCBTweets win by 7 wickets.
This is #RCB's third win on the trot in #TATAIPL.
Scorecard - bit.ly/TATAIPL-2022-18 #RCBvMI #TATAIPL https://t.co/fU98QRPisL
Much like their previous contest against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the same venue, MI struggled to put up an imposing total on the board. A massive collapse in the middle overs caused Suryakumar Yadav to carry out the rebuild of the innings alone. The batter responded in style by scoring his second fifty in a row to help MI post 151-6.
Praising Yadav for his resilient knock, Sharma said during the post-match presentation:
"Definitely not a 150 pitch, Surya showed us if you bat sensibly, you can get more than what you got. Lot of credit to Surya at least to get us to 150, but we knew that it wasn't going to be enough. We took our chances with the ball but they batted quite sensibly."
Yadav's heroics came after MI put on their first fifty-run stand of the season. However, the collapse began after the skipper fell to Harshal Patel. MI were reduced to 62-5 in the 11th over.
Sharma opined that batters are getting out at the wrong time, himself included and it is a probing concern for the team. He said:
"Just got 26, I wanted to bat as long as possible, but unfortunately, I got out at the wrong time. We were hitting that partnership, we just got off to a 50-run partnership, got out at the wrong time, that is something that's hurting us a little bit."
RCB scaled down the total in the penultimate over on the back of Anuj Rawat's maiden IPL fifty (66) and a valuable innings by Virat Kohli (48) as well.
"Just the combination that we felt would be ideal on certain pitches" - Rohit Sharma on only playing two overseas players
Mumbai Indians chose to only include two overseas players in their playing XI against RCB. Daniel Sams and Tymal Mills paved way for Jaydev Unadkat and debutant Ramandeep Singh.
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Explaining the reason behind the move to only play with two foreign players, Sharma said:
"Just the combination that we felt would be ideal on certain pitches and certain opposition. We wanted to strengthen our batting, unfortunately, we had few overseas guys who were unavailable, so we wanted to get the best from whatever we had."
The ploy did not work out as Ramandeep Singh departed after scoring just six runs off 12 deliveries and Unadkat registered figures of 1-30.
Addressing the concerns that the side have ahead of them following four defeats in a row to begin IPL 2022, Sharma said:
"Lot of areas to address really, we want some of our batters to bat as deep as possible, that is one thing we are looking at, and of course, if we get runs on the board, there is always something for the bowlers to do. "
Sharma concluded:
"In the last two games, we were not able to do that, we scored 160 in the last game and 150-odd in this one, it's not enough on a pitch like that. When you come up against an opposition like that, it's never going to be enough."
Mumbai Indians will next face the Punjab Kings at the same venue on April 13 (Wednesday)