Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma stated it was a fantastic bowling effort from his team to restrict Royal Challengers Bangalore to 165 but admitted that the batters let them down as they were skittled out for a paltry score of 111 and thus lost by a massive margin of 54 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
MI have lost all their three matches of the second phase of IPL 2021 and the batting unit has let the team down in all the games. The reigning champions got off to a good start as their skipper Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock added 57 runs for the opening alliance inside the seven overs but they lost wickets in cluster after the duo was dismissed.
Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan could not get going as both of them continued their horrible run of form. Yadav was dismissed after scoring eight runs whereas Kishan could only manage nine runs.
In fact, after Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock’s dismissal, none of the MI batsmen could not even get to double figures. Harshal Patel bagged a hat-trick including the wickets of Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, and Rahul Chahar, and thus became the third RCB bowler to take a hat-trick. Chahal scalped three wickets whereas Maxwell bagged a brace in his four overs.
Rohit Sharma added he doesn’t want to put much pressure on Ishan Kishan, who is still young in his International career.
Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation, “Thought it was a fantastic bowling effort from us. At one stage they looked like scoring 180-plus. Batters let us down. That’s been something that’s been happening consistently (losing their way with the bat). Have had a good chat with the batters. Those who are in need to carry on. They kept the pressure on us once a couple of wickets fell. Need to bounce back from whatever situation we’re in. We’ve done that in the past. Just not happening this season. He’s a talented player (Ishan Kishan). He’s had a terrific IPL last year. We want to back his natural game which is why he came up the order above Surya. Don’t want to put too much pressure on the guy. Relatively young, making his way in international cricket”.
Mumbai Indians find themselves in a soup as they have managed to win only four matches out of the 10 they have played and are currently placed in the seventh position in the points table. The defending champions will next face Punjab Kings at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
