Rohit Sharma is the reason behind Mumbai Indians' five Indian Premier League's (IPL) title. In IPL 2013, the Hitman was given the onus to lead the Paltans and he has always delivered with the leadership role and became the most successful captain of the glitzy league. Just like IPL 2022, MI got off to a patch start to the sixteenth edition of the cash-rich league with back-to-back defeats in the initial matches. But they launched a stunning comeback and have travelled a journey from bottom to no.3 in the IPL 2023's points table. In their recent exploits, Rohit's brigade bulldozed Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by six wickets in match no.54 of the IPL 2023. Rohit might have only extended his lean patch with the willow, but his team produced a magnificent show to make light work of RCB's daunting 200-run target, thanks to Suryakumar Yadav's blistering display with the bat.
Riding on Suryakumar's 35-ball 83, Ishan Kishan's 21-ball 42 and Nehal Wadhera's 34-ball 52, Mumbai created a new record on Tuesday as they leapfrogged Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) for the most 200-plus successful chases in an IPL season. The hammering of RCB in IPL 2023 on Tuesday in Mumbai was the third instance MI overhauled a total in excess of 200 in the season.
Having seen it all in IPL, MI skipper Rohit is still struggling to gauge what a safe score is in the cash-rich league.
"I have no idea what a safe score is. The last four games we have seen excess of 200 has been scored. Most of the teams are taking risks and it is coming off. The batters are taking risks and 200 plus scores are being chased. The mindset of the batters is to do something special for the team and it is coming off as well," Rohit said in the post match presentation.
Meanwhile Rohit also was effusive while praising debutant pacer Akash Madhwal, who conceded just six runs in the final over of RCB's innings when they were in full mood to go past 220-plus total with Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell quickfire fifties in their 120-run stand. However, MI bowlers came back well, conceding just 69 runs in the last 7 overs.
"Akash was with us last year as well. We saw the skillset. We wanted to give him a role. He is quite confident. He leads his Uttarakhand team. He knows what field he needs. We restricted them to less than 200. Was a great effort, It could have been 220 or more," he added.
With this the five-time champions shot to no.3 in the IPL 2023's points table while RCB are once again reeling at the bigger stage and are wobbling at seventh in the standings.
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