Mumbai Indians skipper Sachin Tendulkar lauded his bowlers for restricting the Deccan Chargers to 145, but said some irresponsible batting in the middle stages did his side down against Deccan Chargers on Wednesday night.
Rohit Sharma scored a breezy 38 and then picked up four wickets, including a hat-trick to help Deccan Chargers beat Mumbai Indians by 19 runs in their Indian Premier League match in Centurian.
Tendulkar made special mention about wicket-keeper batsman Pinal Shah's 19-ball 29-run cameo up the order, but came hard on his batters' lacklustre show in the middle of their run chase.
"I thought the bowlers did a fantastic job. It was the batting in the middle stages that didn't go according to our plan. Pinal batted really well, he kept the scoreboard ticking quite nicely. But it's just the that in between overs we lost wickets and didn't score many runs," Tendulkar said.
"Pinal was sent in for a specific role and he executed it to perfection. He has done his job, the rest of the guys now have to pick up," he added.
The master blaster, who himself failed to make any mark today, scoring just two, felt the wicket was perfect to chase a target around 160.
{{/usCountry}}The master blaster, who himself failed to make any mark today, scoring just two, felt the wicket was perfect to chase a target around 160.
{{/usCountry}}"I thought the ball was coming on quite nicely. It was a good wicket, 160 was a possible target."