Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma expressed his disappointment over their batting performance against the Chennai Super Kings on Saturday, May 6 at the Chepauk Stadium in the 2023 Indian Premier League. They suffered their fifth loss of the season, as the hosts chased down 140 runs comfortably.
Batting first, Mumbai Indians were pushed onto the backfoot early. They lost three wickets for just fourteen runs on the board. Nehal Wadhera played a fine hand of 64 runs to help get to 139 runs. However, the rest of the attack failed to put up a substantial score. Matheesha Pathirana picked up three wickets, while Deepak Chahar and Tushar Deshpande took two. Chennai Super Kings chased down the total in the eighteenth over, with six wickets in hand.
Reacting to their loss, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma said,
“Everywhere I guess (on where they went wrong), we didn’t bat well enough, didn’t put enough runs for the bowlers to defend. We had an off-day as a batting unit.”
Rohit Sharma changed his batting position in the match. Instead of opening the innings with Ishan Kishan, he came at number three. Cameron Green opened the innings but managed only six runs. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma was dismissed for another duck. Talking about the batting order change, he said,
“We just did what we felt was comfortable, needed an Indian batter to bat in the middle overs against spin after unfortunately losing Tilak Varma, but we lost three wickets for just 16 runs.”
Other bowlers need to rally around Piyush Chawla: Rohit Sharma
Veteran spinner Piyush Chawla has been brilliant in the ongoing 2023 Indian Premier League. He looked good against the Chennai Super Kings as well, picking up two wickets in four overs. However, the other bowlers failed to make much of an impact. Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma said,
“He’s bowling really well, the other bowlers need to rally around him, that’s what the team needs, everyone has to come forward and chip in contributions.”
Mumbai Indians rank sixth on the points table with ten points from as many games. Their NRR has taken a hit and is currently -0.454. The Rohit Sharma-led team will take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore next on Tuesday, May 9 at Wankhede Stadium.
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