New Delhi:
After beating Kolkata Knight Riders in a low-scoring match, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma said it was a much-needed morale-booster ahead of the IPL-10 title clash against Rising Pune Supergiant.
Sharma sent KKR to bat first and bowled them out for just 107 runs in 18.5 overs in the second eliminator match. Mumbai easily defeated Kolkata with 33 balls to spare at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
The Mumbai Indians skipper at the post-match press conference said, “Gives you a lot of confidence, bowlers set the day for us. Taking wickets at regular intervals and keeping the score under control. That’s been the hallmark of this team, we’re not dependent on one individual.”
The star performer with the ball for Mumbai was leg-spinner Karn Sharma who took 4 wickets by giving just 16 runs. Jasprit Bumrah also played a crucial role and picked 3/7 in just three overs.
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Krunal was Mumbai’s top scorer with 45 off 30 balls, while Rohit contributed 26. Looking ahead, Rohit said, “It’s very necessary to keep changing. We’ve not had a great history against (Rising Pune Supergiant). Just one more hurdle. We have been really working hard. We don’t shy away from going into the finals the hard way. Today was the perfect day,” Sharma said.
On the other hand, Kolkata skipper Gautam Gambhir was very upset after losing to Mumbai, but also said that it was difficult to stage a fightback after being 31 for five at one stage.
Disappointed Gambhir said, “We discussed after the last game that we couldn’t get 160-170 here, we needed 140. We lost too many wickets early on. 107 is not a great score unless you can get the opposition all out. We had to be up for it.”
“Had we had wickets, we could have targetted one or two bowlers. But still I am proud because we put everything we could. We had two opportunities, we missed it. We could have had two cracks at the top two. The boys were professional through the season,” he further added.
‘Man of the Match’ was awarded to Karn Sharma who said, “My bowling is come out well, it wasn’t great last year but I have worked hard on it. This was an important game for the team as we had to qualify for the final, so I just tried to get wickets for my team and bowl them out quickly. It’s a good thing that I am helping out the team.”
With inputs from PTI.
