Mumbai thrive on batting flexibility
BANGALORE:FOLLOWING a poor start to the season, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma put his hand up in the last IPL match, promoting himself to No 3 and chasing down a tricky total set by Chennai Super Kings.
The MI skipper made an unbeaten 56 to steer what eventually turned out to be an easy chase.it is yet to be seen whether this decision would be the turning point for Mumbai Indians as their skipper takes up a bigger responsibility by playing in pressure situations. His team is languishing at sixth with four points from seven games.
“It was a great thing that he put his hand up in pressure situations. At that stage it was very important for an experienced player to go out and win the game. We are very happy for that. But in the coming games, we have kept ourselves flexible in our batting order,” said batsman Suryakumar Yadav, who leads the run charts for Mumbai. Mumbai Indians will take on another struggling team, Royal Challengers Bangalore, at Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday. Rohit, Suryakumar pointed out, had initially come in the middle-order as he wanted to play till the end. However, that did not materialise into runs. Barring the 94 he scored against Royal Challengers Bangalore at No 4 earlier in Mumbai, his highest in the middle-order was 18. “For him to come lower down the order, maybe he wanted to take more responsibility and play till the end. It is good in the last game he came up. It was his call to take that responsibility. In the coming games we will see more of it,” he said.
Mumbai have had the better of Royal Challengers Bangalore in recent times, even at Chinnaswamy Stadium, and that gives them a head-start going into this important game. They have won their last five games against RCB, including the last three here.