Proud to have come this far, batting has been a huge positive: Rohit Sharma

It did not quite happen for the Mumbai Indians in Ahmedabad on Friday as they were blown away by a rampant Gujarat Titans unit, with the charge being led by none other than Shubman Gill, but skipper Rohit Sharma is neither disheartened nor disappointed, and is content with his side’s showing this season.

After finishing bottom of the table last season, things looked bleak for MI after losing the first two matches of this campaign, but the five-time champs stitched together an impressive campaign that saw them finish fourth and down Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Eliminator before falling to defending champions GT in the second Qualifier.

And it was a resurgence that was fueled by the batters. Rohit endured a season to forget, but IPL 2023 saw Cameron Green, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Nehal Wadhera and Tim David all enjoy satisfying campaigns. MI’s campaign came to an end on Friday but they exited the competition having scored more runs (2,945) and quicker (RR 9.5) than any other side.

Rohit, in the aftermath of the GT loss, saw positives, and positives only, heading into next season.

“Playing this game and qualifying as 3rd gives us a lot of confidence, our batting has been the biggest positive, some of the younger players especially and take it to next season and see what you can do,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation.

On the night, Mumbai won the toss and opted to chase, but they were mauled by a ruthless Gill, who smashed his highest IPL score (129) to propel GT to 233.

Mumbai were in the chase until the 15th over, but an eye-watering collapse, triggered by Mohit Sharma, saw them eventually fall short by 62 runs.

Rohit reckoned GT ended up getting 25 too many.

“It was a great total, Shubman batted really well. The wicket was really good. They got 25 extra, with the batting we had we were quite positive when we went in. Couldn't stitch enough partnerships. 

“Green and Surya batted well but we lost our way. We spoke about giving it a good crack, we lost a couple of wickets in the powerplay and did not get the momentum when chasing a target like that. 

“We wanted one batter just like how Shubman batted till the end, and you never know - one side is shorter and the wicket was good, anything can happen, credit where it is due, Gujarat played well.”

During the second innings, a freak injury to Ishan Kishan — who suffered a bizarre concussion — forced Mumbai to rejig their batting order. While middle-order batter Wadhera was forced to open, Vishnu Vinod had to bat at No.6 after coming in as concussion sub. There was another forced mid-innings rejig due to a blow to the arm suffered by Green.

Rohit admitted that the disruptions were not ideal, but admitted that MI were outplayed on the night, and that GT deserved to win.

“Kishan's concussion was unexpected. It was a last-minute change. We had to adapt, to different conditions and situations. Not looking at that though. We did not play well to win the game.”