IPL 2019 | It was an important match so we decided to put runs and then defend, says Rohit Sharma

Mumbai Indians won the toss against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday and quite surprisingly elected to bat first. However, things didn't pan out as MI would have hoped and they scored only 162. The skipper Rohit Sharma took inspiration from the encounter against Chennai Super Kings on April 3 where MI had restricted them to just 133 in a chase of 171. Teams generally like to chase in the shortest format but the skipper felt that their bowling unit was more equipped to defend the total in a match with high stakes. 

"The behaviour of the pitch here has been different this year. It has been a bit up and down. And since it was an important match for us, we decided to put the runs on the board and then defend it. Because we know our bowling is good and we can defend it. Even against CSK, we had defended 170 here. Even today, we almost defended 162. It went to the Super Over,” he said at the post-match press conference, reported Cricbuzz.

Wriddhiman Saha scored a quickfire 25 but Jasprit Bumrah dismissed him in the fourth over, followed by Martin Guptill’s wicket in the sixth over. The sibling duo of Krunal Pandya and Hardik Pandya further scalped two wickets each but Manish Pandey, who scored a final ball six, and Mohammad Nabi ensured that the scores are levelled. The match was eventually won in a Super Over but Rohit reckoned that he knew it was going to be a tough chase for SRH.

"162 wasn't a big total but we bowled well. We took this confidence from our bowlers and decided to bat first. We wanted to put pressure on their batsmen. Their batting lacks experience. So no matter what we scored - 140 or 150 - we knew it was going to be tough for them to chase,” explained the India vice-captain.

Manish Pandey scored a blistering knock of 71 in 47 deliveries which kept SRH alive till the end. However, the spin duo of Krunal and Rahul Chahar stifled the batsman as they only gave 22 and 21 runs respectively in their quota of four overs. The skipper felt that the spin attack was the difference between the two sides.

"Manish batted really well and he played some excellent shots but I think the game-changing moment was the eight overs of spin," Rohit said. "They bowled very well and contained the batsmen which was very important at that stage,” concluded the 32-year-old.