Mumbai Indians faced a disappointing loss at the hands of Chennai Super Kings in their 2023 Indian Premier League game on Saturday afternoon. After being restricted to 139/8 in 20 overs, the MI bowlers faltered as CSK chased down the target with 14 balls to spare. CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had won the toss and invited the MI to bat in Chennai, and even as the visitors made a batting-order shuffle with Cameron Green opening instead of skipper Rohit Sharma, the move didn't reap rewards.
Rohit had been struggling with inconsistency throughout the season, having scored only 184 in his previous nine innings; however, he failed to add another run to the tally, getting dismissed on a second-straight duck as he batted at no.3. While the MI captain's call to go down in the batting order did surprise many, Rohit finally revealed the reason for the same in the post-match presentation ceremony.
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Tilak Varma, one of the in-form batters for MI in this season, was forced to miss the game due to illness and Rohit revealed that it was important for the side to have Indian batters in the middle-order, which was why he batted one position down.
“We did what was comfortable for us. We lost Tilak Varma, we needed Indian batters to bat in the middle-overs, and tackle the spinners. That didn't happen for us in the Powerplay, and it's tough to come back from those situations. We didn't bat well enough to get enough runs on the board,” Rohit said.
{{/usCountry}}“We did what was comfortable for us. We lost Tilak Varma, we needed Indian batters to bat in the middle-overs, and tackle the spinners. That didn't happen for us in the Powerplay, and it's tough to come back from those situations. We didn't bat well enough to get enough runs on the board,” Rohit said.
{{/usCountry}}MI had lost three wickets in the Powerplay; if not for a maiden IPL half-century by left-handed batter Nehal Wadhera (64) and his half-century partnerships with Suryakumar Yadav (26) and Tristan Stubbs (20), MI could've been folded pretty early in the innings.
With the win, Chennai Super Kings moved to second spot in the table with 13 points; Mumbai Indians, meanwhile, remain 6th with 10 points in as many matches.