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Five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Mumbai Indians (MI) sustained yet another humiliating defeat, this time against their arch-rivals and four-time champions, Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The Men in Blue lost their second successive game of the season by seven wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 8 (Saturday). As a result, MI remains winless after playing two matches in the tournament this season so far. The Mumbai openers Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan got decent starts but their inability to convert those into a big score hampered the team once again.
"We lost our way in the middle. Didn't capitalise on the start that we got. It was a good pitch and we were 30-40 runs short the way we got the start but couldn't capitalise in the middle overs. Gotta give credit to their spinners as well, they bowled pretty well kept us under pressure and we were not able to respond," Sharma said to the host broadcaster in an interview with Ravi Shastri.
After another collective failure of the team, captain Rohit Sharma took some responsibility for the franchise's defeat and urged senior players to dig the side out of the slump.
"The senior guys need to step up starting with me. We know the nature of IPL. When it starts you gotta get some momentum towards and if you don't, it's always tough and we are trying to find the momentum. Its 2 games still. Not all lost here but you are right. Some of the senior guys from our team need to step up with the bat," Sharma further added.
If there is anyone who knows what it's like to get into a losing streak in the cash-rich tournament, then Rohit has to be on the top of the list. Under his captaincy, MI have started slow on numerous occasions. But the Hitman doesn't want the losses to turn into a streak this time.
"That's the nature of this tournament, you can win a few on the trot. If you lose, it gets hard to get that momentum. We want to come out of that losing streak, I wouldn't call it a streak, it's just 2 games. You need to do a lot of things right which we are trying to figure in our changing room. We are not able to execute in the middle. We need to come out and take that opportunity and be brave enough to do it in the middle," Sharma said in his post-match presentation.
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