NEW DELHI: Mumbai Indians’ (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma on Saturday said that playing at the Arun Jaitley Stadium suits his side’s style of play but it is important to back the bowlers who will be under pressure at smaller grounds.
All-rounder Kieron Pollard (87* off 34 balls) blazed away to the fastest half-century of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) as Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by four wickets.
It was MI’s second win in as many games here with a couple of matches more to go. The defending champions had struggled at the Chepauk, where they managed to win only two of their five games.
“It suits our style of play, and yes, the bowlers will be under pressure, but that’s where you back the bowlers. There will be games where the bowlers will go for runs, but it’s important to back your core group of bowlers,” Rohit said after the high-scoring match. Talking about the game in which the Mumbai bowlers gave away 218 runs, Rohit said: “I know it’s always tough for the bowlers on a good pitch and a smaller ground. We wanted to stay positive once we finished [bowling our] 20 overs.
“We got a good start…I mean we just had a brief chat [at the innings break] and said it was a good pitch. We had shot-makers in our batting line-up and we just wanted to take the game to the end.”
The skipper backed the decision to send all-rounder Krunal Pandya at number four.
“Brilliant partnership at the top and Krunal-Polly [Pollard] partnership was also there. We backed Krunal (at No.4) and he’s coming off good form in domestic cricket. A left-hander always makes a difference, even though they [CSK] have an off-spinner.”
CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni felt his side wasn’t able to execute its plans well and also rued dropped catches.
—PTI

Press Trust of India