Bengaluru: Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma felt the convincing win in the Qualifier 2 here tonight was a much-needed morale-booster ahead of the IPL-10 title clash against nemesis Rising Pune Supergiant.
Mumbai easily defeated Kolkata Knight Riders to set up the final with RPS.
Sent into bat, KKR were bowled out for 107 runs in 18.5 balls, and Mumbai chased down the target with 33 balls to spare at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
“Gives you a lot of confidence, bowlers set the day for us. Taking wickets at regular intervals and keeping the score under control. That’s been the hallmark of this team, we’re not dependent on one individual,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference.
Leg-spinner Karn Sharma was the star performer with the ball for Mumbai, returning excellent figures of 4/16 – the joint best effort by a spinner in an IPL knockout game, while Jasprit Bumrah provided fine support to pick 3/7 in three overs.
“In the top five, we don’t have any batsman. Shows a team effort. It’s not me, something we have been talking about. I just go and execute what I’ve been told. I rely on my gut feeling as well.”
Krunal was Mumbai’s top scorer with 45 off 30 balls, while Rohit contributed 26.
Looking ahead, Rohit said, “It’s very necessary to keep changing. We’ve not had a great history against (Rising Pune Supergiant). Just one more hurdle.
“We have been really working hard. We don’t shy away from going into the finals the hard way. Today was the perfect day.”
KKR captain Gautam Gambhir was disappointed that his side missed out, but felt it was difficult to stage a fightback after being 31 for five at one stage.
“We discussed after the last game that we couldn’t get 160-170 here, we needed 140. We lost too many wickets early on. 107 is not a great score unless you can get the opposition all out. We had to be up for it.
“Had we had wickets, we could have targetted one or two bowlers. But still I am proud because we put everything we could. We had two opportunities, we missed it. We could have had two cracks at the top two. The boys were professional through the season,” Gambhir said.
Man of the Match Karn Sharma attributed his performance to hard work.
“My bowling is come out well, it wasn’t great last year but I have worked hard on it. This was an important game for the team as we had to qualify for the final, so I just tried to get wickets for my team and bowl them out quickly. It’s a good thing that I am helping out the team.
–PTI