NEWS
Follow UsMumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma is optimistic about playing the final group game against Sunrisers Hyderabad which will help his team in understanding the margin of their victory in order to reach the playoffs of IPL 2021.
Mumbai Indians crushed Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday by eight wickets and 71 balls to spare. The defending champions have a negative run-rate of -0.048 and need to win against Sunrisers Hyderabad and hope that KKR lose to Royals.
If it doesn't happen, they would need to win big against SRH. Asked if it is an advantage to play a team like SRH on the last day, the MI captain said: "All eight teams are capable of beating each other. But the good thing is that KKR play before us, so we will know what to do," said in the post-match presentation.
Rohit was happy that his batters gunned down the target of 91 inside 10 overs.
"We had to come here and do what we had to do, which was to get the two points. It was a chance to improve our run rate as well. We got off to a flier, and we said there is a chance for us to up the run rate. It was the perfect game for us to do that."
He was also happy that Ishan Kishan came back into the team and scored a match-winning 50 off 25 balls after a series of poor scores.
"Kishan is playing after a couple of games, so we wanted him to take his time. I didn't say anything to him [after he played a maiden]. All we wanted for him was to play his shots, which he did. When you are under the radar, it is important to do your job."
Royals skipper Sanju Samson felt that the team struggled to adjust their game to the slow pitch at Sharjah.
"It was a bit challenging wicket to bat on. It was tougher in the first innings. Coming from Abu Dhabi, playing in Sharjah was a massive difference. Can't blame the batsmen a lot, but it was tough to bat in the first innings. Abu Dhabi had one of the best batting wickets, switching to Sharjah was tough."
Samson was unable to pin point what went wrong for his team after suffering a big defeat.
"It's a bit cloudy right now, we need to take some time off and then think about the next game. We would definitely like to play a better game of cricket in the next match. We knew that they'll be coming strong, in the powerplay. They wanted to increase the run-rate. The wicket was a bit better than the first innings but they batted really well."