Off to a poor start in the Indian Premier League with three defeats on the trot, former champions Mumbai Indians are a bit low in confidence, conceded team captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Ricky Ponting yesterday
Mumbai Indians' skipper Rohit Sharma (right) with Corey Anderson during an IPL match against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in Kolkata recently
Off to a poor start in the Indian Premier League with three defeats on the trot, former champions Mumbai Indians are a bit low in confidence, conceded team captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Ricky Ponting yesterday.
Mumbai Indians' skipper Rohit Sharma (right) with Corey Anderson during an IPL match against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in Kolkata recently
"I know we've lost three games. We've not been doing some things well. We're working on it. We're unable to cross one hurdle that we have to cross and something is lacking in batting or bowling. It's a matter of lacking a bit in confidence.
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We have to give the boys the confidence," said Sharma on the sidelines of the MI-Reliance Foundation's Education For All, initiative for underprivileged children. "We have not got off to a great start so far in the tournament.
Looking at the last couple of games we played some really good cricket. We have to make sure we do that for the entire 40 overs and not only for 25 or 30 overs as we have been doing," said Ponting.
Mumbai have lost two away games, to Kolkata Knight Riders (by seven wickets on April 8) and Rajasthan Royals (by seven wickets on April 14), besides a home game to Kings XI Punjab (by 18 runs on April 12) and are presently at the last rung of the table, even below another winless team Delhi Daredevils because of an inferior net run-rate.
However, the skipper exuded confidence by observing that last year too — when the first half of the tournament was held in the UAE because of the general elections in the country — MI had bounced back after a horror run of five straight defeats (see box) to make the play-offs. "Even last time we were in a similar situation and we came back well.
We are next playing a home game against CSK (April 17) which is an important game and we need to forget what has happened so far, take the positives and go forward," said Sharma.
Finch out of tournament
Meanwhile, MI batsman Aaron Finch, who suffered a hamstring injury against against Rajasthan Royals, yesterday tweeted: "Looks like I'll be out of the rest of @IPL at this stage! The scan showed a bit of damage, absolutely shattered."
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