Mumbai, April 21 (IANS) Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma praised his team for displaying an all-round performance to outdo Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match here which eventually helped them find the right team combination.
Batting first, Bangalore managed 170/7 in 20 overs. Travis Head (37) was the top scorer for the side.
In reply, leading from the front, Rohit smashed 62 off just 44 balls and Kieron Pollard’s quick-fire unbeaten 19-ball 39 helped defending champions Mumbai chase down the total easily as they posted 171/4 with two overs to spare to bag their second win of the season.
“See, as a captain of the team, it is always important to get the right balance as soon as you can, because lot of domestic players — sometimes you know so much of international cricket we play, we don’t get to see them. So, it’s important you have got a lot of scouters who go and scout people and see how they perform and what their capabilities are. We have got a lot of inputs from our scouts and a lot of young players,” Rohit said at the press conference after the win at the Wankhede stadium here on Wednesday.
“Luckily, we have a couple of practice games to see what these local guys can do — I mean local Indian players can do — and it’s important to get that combination right. Luckily, we have got such a great management who keeps giving inputs to use — how we can fit this guy into the team… We have got a nice and balanced squad right now and hopefully they can continue to play for a longer period of time and perform the way they need to,” he said.
Rohit also praised all-rounder Krunal Pandya, who with his off-spin skills in the 11th over of the Bangalore innings dismissed in-form batsmen Virat Kohli (caught at long-off) followed by AB de Villiers (stumped) to turn the match in favour of the hosts.
“He (Krunal) has been impressive, no doubt about that… even in the first game he played here against Gujarat Lions. He did not get wickets but bowled four overs for just 20 runs and, then he did it with the bat in (Sunrisers) Hyderabad, scored 49 off just 25 or 26 balls and again today getting those two big important wickets in the middle (AB and Kohli) was very crucial from the team’s perspective,” he said.
“I think he is got something about him, he knows his bowling really well and he understands the conditions really well, so it makes my job easier as a captain. He sets his own field,” the 28-year-old said.
The star opener stressed that he will open for his side for the rest of the matches in the tournament. Rohit came in to bat at No.4 against Hyderabad and managed only four runs before getting out.
“I will, I will bat at the top of the order. As far as our batting is concerned, it looks more settled with Ambati Rayadu batting at three and myself batting at the top of the order and we wanted Pollard to get back in form as quickly as possible, and today was a perfect day for him. I think more or less I will continue to open for the rest of the tournament,” Rohit added.