New Delhi, India
Mumbai Indians (MI) lost their sixth game in a row in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 on Saturday (April 16) after an 18-run defeat at the hands of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Mumbai Indians faltered once again in a run chase as they failed to successfully nail down the target of 200 runs at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
KL Rahul slammed his first hundred of the season as he notched up a brilliant unbeaten 103 off 60 balls to power Lucknow Super Giants to a big total of 199 runs on the board. MI bowlers continued to struggle and none of them barring Jaydev Unadkat and Jasprit Bumrah managed to make an impact in the game.
Skipper Rohit Sharma's rough patch continued as he was dismissed cheaply for 6 while his opening partner Ishan Kishan was sent packing on just 13 off 17 balls as MI got off to a woeful start. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were restricted on 181/9 as LSG won the game comfortably.
It was Mumbai's sixth defeat in a row this season - their worst start to a season. MI also joined RCB and Delhi Capitals as they equalled the unwanted record of losing most matches in a row at the start of the season. No team has lost more than six games at the start of an IPL season.
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Reacting to his team's sixth defeat in IPL 2022, skipper Rohit said the lack of big partnerships saw Mumbai fail to pull off the run chase. He also explained the reason behind not giving Jasprit Bumrah the first over for MI and spoke about the team combination that MI is yet to finalise this season.
"Hard to point out one particular situation, when you are chasing a total we need big partnerships, something we failed to do today," said Rohit at the post-match presentation.
"There's no particular reason to it, we try and put team before the individual. They bat quite deep and it is important to hold your key bowlers towards the back end. We always try and keep Bumrah for the back end and it didn't seem to work out. He bowled pretty well but the others just need to pull up their socks a little bit," he added speaking about the move to hold back Bumrah.
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While Mumbai Indians are yet to win their first game this season, Rohit himself has been struggling with the bat. He is yet to find his rhythm at the top and has not managed to get going for the five-time champions. The Hitman said he takes full responsibility of not being able to provide good starts for his team and hopes MI can fight back.
"I'm trying to prepare myself in the way I prepare for every game, that is no different. It's not coming off, I take the full responsibility of not putting the team in the situation of what they expect from me. I back myself to go out there and enjoy the game and doing what I have been doing all these years. It's important to keep looking forward. It's not the end of the world, we have come back before and we will try and come back again," said Rohit.