Rohit Sharma has played plenty of roles, skipper, senior player, saviour. But this IPL, he has mostly been seen assuming the backstage, only entering the deck to fix some minor things here and there. He has only done so four times this season, but dare I say they were of any lesser importance. Each of his fifties came in a winning cause, the most significant of those, up till now, was his innings in the Eliminator against the, who feel like, eternally high-flying Gujarat Titans (GT).
Mumbai Indians have scored 200-plus runs 17 times in first innings in the IPL and have successfully defended each of those. So, the plan in Rohit’s mind was simple: get past the 200-run mark and let the fortune do the rest, and so he did.
“I definitely would have liked to get more [fifties]. But today was a good day for us as a team,” he said. “I do understand the importance of playing this Eliminator and going through this next step, taking that step forward. Again, a complete team performance, which we are really, really proud of.”
Dropped catches are a bummer, not just for the fielding side but also for the batter. Each drop quietly chips away at the batter’s credit in hindsight. Rohit was the ‘victim’ of two such chances, both in the first three overs. Somehow, he had to justify the discipline required to score the rest of his runs after that, more than he got to celebrate his feat of joining Chris Gayle in hitting the most IPL sixes.
“To be honest, I’ve played all those shots in the game before and unfortunately, I found fielders,” Rohit said. “Somewhere down the line, you know, you’ve got to be lucky and today was that day for me. I got lucky.
“You know, those catches were dropped. But again, like I said, even after the drops, you still have to play well to get those runs. And that is what I was focusing on, how I can keep that momentum going, keep that tempo going, which was brilliant from our entire batting unit to get that score. And then, like I said, it was a good bowling effort as well.”
While Rohit held one end, Jonny Bairstow joined him in the rampage against GT. In the absence of Ryan Rickelton, playing his first ever IPL game of the season, Bairstow was more than impressive to set the stage for a 200-run finish.
“I’ve watched him over the years being on the other side,” Rohit was all praises for Bairstow, who thrashed a 22-ball 47. “But it was nice to be on the same side and have a crack at it. We know the quality that he has, a lot of experience playing this format. And we know what he can do upfront with the bat. That is exactly what he did. It never looked like he was playing his first game for this franchise. You know, got settled in pretty well, took his chances and it came off. And it was a good start. We always look for that start. We got that start and we then obviously capitalised on it.”
Mumbai Indians will now play Punjab Kings in Qualifier 2, to try and earn a ticket to the final. Rohit may not say it himself, perhaps out of modesty, but the signs are quite telling. He is in form, he is hungry, and this time he might want to stay a little longer on the center stage.
