Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma seemed to be getting back his mojo today against the Gujarat Titans after a string of low scores in the middle of the IPL 2023 season.
Rohit Sharma had gotten off to a quickfire start against the Titans pacer Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma before taking down Rashid Khan, and along with Ishan Kishan, he lifted MI to 61/0 at the end of the powerplay. However, right after the powerplay, the wily Afghanistan leg-spinner dismissed both the MI openers.
It was pure entertainment from Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan in the first 6 overs as the pair creamed 7 fours and 3 sixes to light up the massive crowd assembled at the Wankhede for this mouth-watering clash with MI coming on the back of three 200 and 200+ successful chases that had kept them alive in the playoff race.
One of those sixes stunned everyone and even had Rohit Sharma and his wife, Ritika Sajdeh, emotional. This was Rohit Sharma’s famous pull shot that send the crowd and commentators into raptures and Rohit and Ritika emotional.
It was a back-of-length delivery on the batter’s thigh from pacer Mohit Sharma. As usual, Rohit Sharma judged the length quickly, got into position quickly, brought his bat down with a swift motion and deposited it deep over the deep square leg fielder, into the dancing crowd in the second tier.
Ian Bishop on commentary was in delirium while Rohit Sharma and his wife, sitting in the stands, got emotional and Ritika even seemed to have got teary-eyed on this sensational six from the MI captain that announced his return after 5 consecutive single-digit scores.
Watch: Rohit Sharma and Ritika Sajdeh almost in tears on the MI captain’s stunning six:
Rohit got out for 29 off 18 and Kishan got out for 31 off 20, both dismissed by Rashid Khan. Rashid also took out Nehal Wadhera before Suryakumar Yadav and Vishnu Vinod counter-attacked.
Earlier, GT skipper Hardik Pandya had won the toss and elected to field first.
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya(c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Mohit Sharma, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Noor Ahmad
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Nehal Wadhera, Tim David, Chris Jordan, Vishnu Vinod, Piyush Chawla, Jason Behrendorff, Kumar Kartikeya
GT Subs: Shubman Gill, Sudharsan, KS Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore
MI Subs: Akash Madhwal, Ramandeep Singh, Dewald Brevis, Sandeep Warrier, Hrithik Shokeen
At the toss, Rohit Sharma said – We would have done the same thing, we need to bat and bowl really well. Things are coming along nicely in the last few games. We understand where we stand at the moment, just focus on the game in hand. It’s not been ideal in terams of injury management, but we’ll have to deal with it and that’s what the guys have done. We’ve spoken about not letting external factors affect us. We’re playing with the same squad as the last game
Hardik Pandya – We will bowl first. Looks like a good wicket, dew could have an effect, so chasing could be ideal. We realise the importance of every game, just need to stick to our plans and play good cricket. It’s important to learn the lessons from your losses, rectify and don’t repeat it. You do make mistakes in such a long tournament. God has been kind with our injuries. Same XI tonight
