IPL 2019 | Rohit Sharma praises Alzarri Joseph for 'sensational bowling effort' against SRH

Mumbai Indians had only scored 136 runs in their 20 overs after failing to read the slow nature of the pitch in the early overs. Sunrisers Hyderabad were once again looking to play on similar lines as the opening duo of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner were batting aggressively.

However, the West Indian pacer Joseph had other plans as he broke Pakistan pacer Sohail Tanvir’s record figures of 14 for 6 to win the match for his side, that too in his debut game. After Rahul Chahar dismissed Bairstow for 16 in the fourth over, Alzarri followed it up with David Warner and Vijay Shankar’s wickets in his next two overs. He came back in the death overs and put an end to SRH’s hope with four more wickets, leaving his skipper Rohit Sharma in a sense of awe.

"It was a sensational bowling effort from Alzarri, to bowl like this in first game. He's come in on a lot of confidence from the CPL (Caribbean Premier League) and he's carrying it here," said Sharma, at the post match presentation ceremony, reported PTI.

The bowlers consistently bowled good lines and headed by Joseph, they finished the match before the end of the 18th over. The skipper was pleased with his bowler’s performance who did not give an inch to breathe to the Sunrisers’ batsmen while defending such a low score.

"Yes, very pleased. Winning the game is obviously a great result. I thought 136 wasn't a great batting effort, but we bowled in the right areas, kept them guessing all the time and held our nerves. We were in the game till the last ball which is what we spoke of," the 31-year-old stated.

The skipper was the first batsman to be dismissed at 11 and the rest followed him with quick dismissals. Before the batsmen could judge the pitch correctly, it was too late and they seemed to end up at a total around 100. But Kieron Pollard’s blitzkrieg pulled them up to a respectable 136.

"We didn't bat well to start with, kept losing wickets and we knew after a few overs that it wasn't a 170-180 pitch,” Sharma reflected.

"The pitch was under covers for a day, it was raining as well and the wicket was a bit sticky. So we knew that 140 would be a good score to defend because we've got the quality in our bowling and we back them to defend whatever we get."

Warner and Bairstow had three century stands between them in four matches until then and had lasted till the end of powerplay in all the matches. A downside of this was that their middle order was untested a fact which the MI camp was well aware of.

"The bulk of the runs were scored by the top-order, but it's not that their middle order wasn't good and we wanted to exploit that. We knew that once we got an early wicket, we were in the game; and with the spin and the seamers we have, we knew we could knock them out in the middle,” explained India ODI team’s vice captain.

"We want to win as many games as possible at the start because we know how hectic it gets in the end. A few of the guys leaving for the World Cup doesn't help either."

Reiterating the importance of starting well, the skipper praised Pollard’s knock, where he kept strike for all the final 12 balls and smashed 37 runs, keeping the three time champions’ hopes in the match alive.

"To start the tournament is important and the last two games shows the quality we have in our squad. Again, we needed characters to step up - Pollard came in and played that knock towards the end which was very crucial in contributing to the total,” Sharma said.

Apart from Joseph’s six dismissals, Rahul Chahar claimed two wickets, and Jason Behrendorff and Jasprit Bumrah took one each. The skipper credited all his bowlers while singling out Joseph.

"All the bowlers then stepped in and contributed with Alzarri," he signed off.

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