Mumbai Indians (MI) are out of the race for the playoffs after they suffered eight straight losses in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. But after their streak of losses, the record IPL champions have found a way to win matches. On Friday at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, their encounter against Gujarat Titans (GT) was a close-knit affair until Daniel Sams delivered a nerve-wracking final over. Hardik Pandya's side were six runs short of a victory but the left-arm quick outclassed them by conceding just three runs.
Speaking after the match, skipper Rohit Sharma lauded Sams for his calm over and was happy that his side were able to play out the end with a win, "It was pretty tight at the back end. Very satisfying, something we were looking for all this while. Luck has to turn at some stage, we'll take that win with both hands. Credit to everyone. Sams was under the pump in a couple of games but I know the quality he has. It's important to back those guys. We are trying to maintain the same squad how much ever possible. Daniel Sams was brilliant."
He also appreciated the efforts of Singaporean batter Tim David, who hit a 21-ball 44 at a strike rate of 209.52 runs. "Tim David finished things really well. We knew it would be tough, but we held our nerves and that was good to see. A lot depends on how the game is going, and who's bowling well on the day. Luckily I had few resources so I could change up," said the India team skipper.
"We were 15-20 runs short. The way we started, we got stuck in the middle. They bowled well in that situation. They bowled slower balls and it was difficult to hit. We wanted to do the same. We did that pretty well, it was a great effort from the bowling unit. We didn't want to look too far ahead. Even today, we didn't play our best cricket, a lot of credit to the bowlers at the back-end. It's important to back the skills you have," he added.
