IPL 2018 | When we are thrown into challenges, we tend to respond well, says Rohit Sharma

05/21/2018

After a disappointing loss, MI captain, Rohit Sharma insisted that the team have always responded well whenever they have been thrown into challenges, but it just wasn’t their day against Delhi Daredevils. MI have been forced out of the tournament by Delhi Daredevils, who won the match by 11 runs.

Mumbai Indians needed to win the match against Delhi Daredevils to qualify for the knockouts. Looking at the past few seasons, where Mumbai have managed to win most of their must-win games, Mumbai’s win was almost certain. However, things didn’t quite go according to the plan for Mumbai Indians.

MI batsmen failed to deliver when the team needed it the most and eventually they fell short by 11 of the 174 target set by Delhi Daredevils. Rohit Sharma emphasized that the task to qualify for the knockouts was tough and insisted that the team always responded well under pressure but it just wasn’t their day against DD. He felt that DD scored 10-15 runs more than what would have been ideal for them, but also pointed out that another batsman with Ben Cutting could have changed the match.

"Those things will always happen (winning runs towards the end and pressure matches). Everybody is fighting hard for that spot, so we knew that it was not going to be easy and we were in this situation many times before...So, I cannot say that it was taking a toll on anyone's body. We are here to accept those challenges and when we are thrown into challenges, we tend to respond well.

"Today was just not the day for us. There were certain areas in our bowling that we would have done well, we could have restricted them to probably 10-15 runs less. But again looking at how Ben (Cutting) was batting that if one batter had stayed till the end, you never know what could have happened," Rohit Sharma said as quoted by India Today.

In reply to DD’s 174, MI bundled out for 163 in 19.3 overs. Rohit insisted that he was content with the performance of the team in the whole season. He was satisfied by the team’s effort in the second half of the tournament to give themselves a chance to qualify for the knockouts and credited Delhi for the good cricket they played and accepted that his team was not quite up to the mark.

"Disappointing that we didn't get over the finish line but there are lot of things, where I can look back and say that 'we didn't do this right, we didn't do that right' but looking at how the first half went, we gave ourselves a chance and in the second half we played really good cricket," Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

"But, things like that can happen and we can take a lot of learning out of them. Of course it was disappointing to be on the losing side. We all knew it was an important game, we just wanted to go out there and play and hats off to Delhi as well. They played good cricket, bowled in the right areas....we knew chasing would always be tough considering how the wicket was playing and taking their skills away from it, we played bad cricket as well. We were not there today," he added.

Opener Evin Lewis, who scored 48 runs off 31 balls, was the top-scorer for MI while Ben Cutting, who scored 37 runs off 20 balls, tried to rescue MI but no one supported him in his valiant effort. Amit Mishra and Sandeep Lamichhane picked up three wickets each for the Daredevils while Harshal Patel removed the tail-enders to finish with figures of 3 for 28.

Earlier, Delhi rode on a half-century from Rishabh Pant, who scored 64 runs off 44 balls and some death over heroics by Vijay Shankar, who scored unbeaten 43 runs off 30 deliveries to post 174/4 in their 20 overs.

With 12 points in the kitty, Mumbai ended their campaign with 6 wins in the 14 matches they played in the whole season.