Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma believes that his team lost their way as their Indian Premier League (IPL) journey came to an end after a 62-run defeat against Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL 2023 Qualifier 2 match at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday.
The defending champions (GT) managed to put up a total of 233 on the board with the help of Shubman Gill's impressive knock of 129. MI were backing themselves after chasing 200-plus targets on multiple occasions this season. However, after enjoying a bright start to the game they eventually lost their grip on the game in the middle overs.
"It was a great total, Shubman batted really well. The wicket was really good. They got 25 extra, with the batting we had we were quite positive when we went in. Couldn't stitch enough partnerships. Green and Surya batted well but we lost our way. We spoke about giving it a good crack, we lost a couple of wickets in the powerplay and did not get the momentum when chasing a target like that," Rohit Sharma said after the match.
The only thing that kept MI away from victory was individual brilliance. Gill played that role for GT while for MI, Cameron Green and Suryakumar Yadav laid the foundation well but failed to build on it when the time arrived.
"We wanted one batter just like how Shubman batted till the end, and you never know - one side is shorter and the wicket was good, anything can happen, credit where it is due, Gujarat played well. We did not expect that, he had a bit of a concussion, I don't know how it happened [on Ishan]. We have been talking about adapting to different conditions and different situations. I won't look into that, we did not play well to win the game."
Even in the absence of their star players like Jasprit Bumarh and Kieron Pollard MI still managed to stay alive in the competition with the likes of Akash Madhwal and Arjun Tendulkar taking their first steps to establish themselves as regular players. MI will be looking to build on it ahead of IPL's next season.
"Playing this game and qualifying as 3rd gives us a lot of confidence, our batting has been the biggest positive, some of the younger players especially and take it to next season and see what you can do," Rohit concluded.
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