Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma was disappointed by their narrow 3-run defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad but was satisfied that his make-shift bowling attack managed to pull back things in the slog overs in Match 65 of IPL 2022 at the Wankhede here.
He said his team would have won the match but for the unfortunate run out of Tim David (46), who had hammered four sixes off T Natarajan in the 18th over.
After restricting a rampaging Sunrisers Hyderabad to 193/6 in 20 overs with some good bowling in the slog overs, Mumbai Indians were looked good for their fourth win of IPL 2022 when David blitzed Natarajan for 26 runs in the 18th over. They needed 19 runs off 13 balls to win but David went for an unnecessary single to retain strike and was run out. Mumbai eventually ended with 190/7 in 20 overs and fell agonizingly short.
“Till about the second to last over, I thought we had it. Unfortunate runout of Tim David but we thought we were very much in the game till that runout. Even 19 runs to go with two overs, you would back yourself to get that but unfortunately, we couldn’t do it. Credit to Sunrisers to hold their nerve. It was a very tense moment and they held their nerve very well at the back end,” Rohit said during the post-match presentation on Tuesday.
Already out of contention, Mumbai has been trying several players with an eye on the future, and on Tuesday, they gave a chance to Mayank Markande and Sanjay Yadav. Rohit said the make-shift bowling attack did well to come back towards the end of the Sunrisers innings.
“We wanted to try a few things keeping one eye on the future. We wanted to try out certain guys to bowl under pressure in certain situations of the game. I thought they batted pretty well to get to 193 but the way we pulled things back at the back end was a great effort. We were not consistent with the ball up front and that can happen. But I thought it was a great effort towards the back end. With the bat, we came pretty close but couldn’t finish it off,” he said.
Asked about their plans for their final match of IPL 2022 against Delhi Capitals on May 21, Rohit said they will try to finish the season on a high. “For us, it’s pretty simple. We just want to tick off the boxes and finish off on a high note if possible. We will try everything we can from our side to put our best foot forward in the last game. If there is an opportunity to try out some more guys, we will look to do that too,” he added.
