Rohit Sharma was at his devastating best as he pulled his team Mumbai Indians (MI) out of a deep hole on Tuesday. MI squared off with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a highly-anticipated Indian Premier League (IPL) clash at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
The defending champions were in serious trouble when they lost two wickets off the first two balls. New ball bowler Umesh Yadav was on fire as he castled in-form batsmen Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan off successive deliveries.
Rohit’s knock, comprising ten fours and five sixes, propelled the hosts to a highly competitive 213/6 from their 20 overs. He missed a much-deserved century by a whisker, getting caught at long-on off the penultimate delivery of the match.
Put in to bat, Mumbai recovered from a shock start of 0/2 to post 213/6, their highest score of the season, mainly through the splendid batting of Rohit (94 in 52 balls) and opener Evin Lewis (65 in 42 balls). Then, the Mumbai bowlers led by left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya (3/28) stopped RCB at 167/8 in 20 overs to notch up their first win, in their fourth match, of the season.
Chasing 214, RCB captain Virat Kohli’s aggressive 62-ball 92 was the lone bright spot in the visitors’ run-chase of 214 as they lost their way after a promising start
Before this game, Rohit hadn’t looked at his best nor had he managed to get too far in his innings, having managed only a total of 44 runs in three innings.
Ahead of the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, MI Indians mentor Sachin Tendulkar visited the team during their practice session and gave some tips to MI’s skipper on how to deal with pressure situations.
And there was one special bowler in the nets to help Sharma prepare for the RCB challenge and he was none other than Sachin’s son Arjun Tendulkar.
Arjun Tendulkar is one of the regular bowlers for MI team during their net sessions. He bowls left-arm pace.
Welcome to Wankhede! On strike is Rohit Sharma facing Arjun Tendulkar and Robin Singh in tandem… Sachin Tendulkar is around too, giving inputs to the young left-arm pacer… pic.twitter.com/k4vbSP06jM
— Devarchit (@Devarchit) April 16, 2018
Arjun also got a few tips from MI’s bowling coach Lasith Malinga during the net sessions.