Rohit Sharma, who turned 26 yesterday, joined the illustrious list of captains like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar, who have won the first three games of the cash-rich league when Mumbai Indians defeated Kings XI Punjab by four runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday
It was Mumbai Indians’ fourth win at home in the sixth edition of the tournament. Out of form Ricky Ponting’s decision to opt out of the playing XI turned out to be a masterstroke as the MI squad looks more settled going into the business end of the IPL.u00a0
Team-man: Rohit Sharma celebrates his 50 at the Wankhede on Monday. PIC/Atul Kamble
ADVERTISEMENT
However, Sharma played down the suggestion that he is a lucky mascot for MI. “I am not a lucky mascot. It is just that things are working pretty well for me,” Sharma said after MI’s narrow win over Punjab.
Sharma played one of the most memorable knocks in T20s when he struck an unbeaten 79 off just 39 balls to help Mumbai post 174 for three.
It was a brilliant chase by Punjab, thanks to stand-in skipper David Hussey’s 34, David Miller’s 34-ball 56 and a 24-run cameo in the end by Praveen Kumar, but they eventually fell short by four runs.
Hussey felt the final over bowled by him in which he conceded 27 runs cost Punjab the match. “I wasn’t going to bowl. Yeah it is one of those things. PC (Piyush Chawla) has bowled in the death overs in the last few years and has done particularly well. But tonight it wasn’t coming out for him. So I took the wrong one and sadly went for 27, probably cost us the game,” Hussey said.u00a0
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
