Mumbai, (Samajweekly) His tongue firmly in his cheek, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma on Sunday hoped that his team would get the result of the “great favour” they did to Royal Challengers Bangalore in last year’s Indian Premier League as his team awaits the result of the final league match to know their fate in IPL 2023.
Mumbai Indians went into Sunday’s clash with Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium here needing to win their match and hoping that RCB lose their encounter with table-toppers Gujarat Titans at Bangalore, which has been interrupted by rain. Mumbai Indians defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets and they can make it to the Playoffs only if RCB lose to Gujarat Titans.
The “great favour” that Rohit Sharma alluded to was Mumbai Indians’ five-wicket win over Delhi Capitals at the same Wankhede Stadium that clinched RCB’s spot in the Playoffs.
“Last year, we did a great favour to RCB. We hope the result there goes our way,” Rohit said during the post-match presentation here on Sunday.
After restricting Sunrisers Hyderabad to 200/5 despite blazing half-centuries by Vivrant Sharma (69) and Mayank Agarwal (83) thanks to a four-wicket haul by Akash Madhwal (4-37), Mumbai Indians chased down the target thanks to a brilliant maiden T20 century by Cameron Green (100 not out) and a chance-filled half-century by skipper Rohit Sharma (56).
Rohit Sharma said they went into the match with the mindset to win and were not bothered about the NRR equation.
“We came with the mindset to win and not worry about what happens elsewhere. Just hoping for the best. I haven’t spoken to anyone,” he said.
Rohit Sharma said they will have to blame themselves if they fail to go through to the Playoffs and singled out the defeats to Punjab Kings at the Wankhede and to Lucknow Super Giants in their last match as the reason for the difficult position they landed in.
“Even if we don’t go through it, we get ourselves to blame. If we do, boys get credit. We didn’t start well but fixed things along the way. If I have to look back, we lost crucial moments and games like against Punjab here and the last game versus LSG,” he said.
The Mumbai Indians skipper, however, said he will not look too much into this campaign.
“We can’t look too much into that. Sometimes it doesn’t come along which is fair,” he signed off.
