A team effort every time has been Mumbai Indians’ key to success, captain Rohit Sharma said after their facile six-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) second qualifier game at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.
“That’s been the hallmark of this team – we’ve not depended on one individual. It’s all about teamwork and we’ve been doing that regularly. Good to see when individuals take responsibility,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Mumbai rode on Karn Sharma (4/16) and Jasprit Bumrah’s (3/7) brilliant bowling effort to skittle KKR out for 107 inside 18.5 overs.
While chasing, Krunal Pandya’s unbeaten 45 was enough to see off their rivals and book a final berth where they will take on Steve Smith’s Rising Pune Supergiant on Sunday.
“We’ve been working hard. So we don’t want to shy away from going into the finals the hard way.
“We deserve to be in the final. We’ve played really good cricket through the tournament. We played a great game today. When you have a performance like that, it gives you confidence. Bowlers set the game up for us,” Rohit said.
Lauding his bowlers, the India opener said: “Their performance was very pleasing. Taking wickets at regular intervals. We always knew that wicket wasn’t going to be easy, so we wanted to restrict the score.”
“Karn Sharma bowled really well and set the game up for us. It’s something we’ve been talking about (Bumrah with the new ball). We all know Bumrah is a wicket-taking bowler. KKR have a top-heavy batting, so we wanted to get them out early. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I rely on my gut feel. We kept changing bowlers,” he said on handing Bumrah the new ball.
On the final, Rohit said: “It’s going to be an exciting contest. We don’t have a good history with that team. We have to focus on what we need to do as a team. Hyderabad is a different venue so we need to assess conditions quickly. It’s all about getting used to those conditions.”
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