With an eye on the future of the franchise, Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma said they are looking to try out as many players as they can before concluding a forgettable campaign for the five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions. The side suffered their 10th defeat of the ongoing campaign after losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by three runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday, May 17.
Chasing 194 for victory, the MI innings ended their innings at 190/7 after some exceptional death bowling by the SRH pacers.
Asked about the Mumbai bowling at the presentation ceremony, Rohit said, "We wanted to try a few things keeping one eye on the future. We wanted to try out certain guys to bowl under pressure in certain situations of the game. I thought they batted pretty well to get to 193 but the way we pulled things back at the back end was a great effort."
MI were the first team to get eliminated from the playoffs race this season with four games left in their season. Since then, they have won just one game, against another side that has struggled this season in Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Having given away crucial runs in the final overs of their bowling innings, Rohit was content with their batting performance during their narrow loss to SRH.
"Till about the second to last over, I thought we had it. Unfortunate runout of Tim David but we thought we were very much in the game till that runout. Even 19 runs to go with two overs, you would back yourself to get that but unfortunately, we couldn't do it. Credit to Sunrisers to hold their nerve. It was a very tense moment and they held their nerve very well at the back end," he said.
He also expects his team to perform at their possible best in their final game of the season against Delhi Capitals (DC) and finish the season on a high note, "For us it's pretty simple. We just want to tick off the boxes, and finish off on a high note if possible. We will try everything we can from our side to put our best foot forward in the last game. If there is an opportunity to try out some more guys, we will look to do that too."
