Seasoned Suryakumar Yadav and young Tilak Varma gave the best 35th birthday present to their skipper Rohit Sharma as Mumbai Indians finally opened their account, beating Rajasthan Royals by five wickets in an IPL match on Saturday (April 30).
Chasing a victory target of 159, MI reached home in 19.2 overs, courtesy Surya (51 off 39 balls) and Tilak (35 off 30 balls) adding 81 for the third wicket.
It was MI's first win after eight successive defeats and even though the result bears little consequence but it is certainly going to keep the five-time champions in a good mind space.
Skipper Rohit Sharma would any day take a MI victory as a birthday present and more so when the team finally performed to its potential after eight straight defeats.
MI recorded their first win of the season beating Rajasthan Royals by five wickets as they put up their best show of the current edition on a Saturday night.
"I'd definitely take it," Rohit said when asked if he ever thought this could be his birthday present.
"That's how we play, real potential came out today, with the ball especially. They kept applying the pressure. If you keep taking wickets, it's going to be difficult for them, we did that perfectly today," Rohit said, heaping praise on his bowling unit.
It has been a season of near misses, feels MI skipper.
"But one thing I can say is, we were not blown away by the opposition, we came really close. Had we won those games, things would have been slightly different," said Rohit.
He didn't feel that team combination was the reason for the debacle which this season has been so far.
"This is the team we played in the first couple of games except few bowling changes. When you have a season like that, you are not sure of your combination. You want to try out so many things." Rohit admitted that conditions in Navi Mumbai are a bit different.
"The conditions are different. The ball tends to grip here, the pitches are flat in the other venues. We try and field the best combination, it hasn't worked for eight games," he added.
