IPL 7: Spoken to Pollard after ugly spat with Starc: Rohit Sharma

Mumbai Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma today defended his teammate Kieron Pollard and said the ugly spat involving the West Indian and Royal Challengers Bangalores Mitchell Starc happened in the heat of the moment and wont be repeated The incident took place here on May 6 We all have spoken to himAlso read PollardStarc episode isnt cricket says Bishen Singh BediRohit SharmaI thought whatever happened happened in the heat of the game Nobody wants to ruin the spirit of the game It happened and we have spoken about it and we have to move forward now Sharma said on the eve of the IPL defending champions clash against twotime former winners Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium Pollard we know is an aggressive player He didnt do anything purposelyAlso read I told Kieron Pollard Ill punch him in the head says Chris GayleAs a captain it was my duty to explain or tell him what sort of behaviour you should have on field We have had a word with him and he is okay with that Hopefully he will not repeat such mistakes he told reporters The incident referred to was Pollard charging with the bat at Australian leftarm pacer Starc after the latter delivered the ball to him despite the batsman having backed off from the creaseIt was a despicable incident as Pollard had advanced menacingly at Starc before throwing his bat which luckilyhit the turf well away from the bowler Starc was fined 50 per cent of his match fees while Pollard was fined 75 per cent On tomorrows game against formidable rivals Chennai Sharma said it will be a very intense contest between two top sides We want to take this as another gameAlso read Kieron Pollard Mitchell Starc get away with fine for ugly onfield spatWe dont want to think too much about the opposition We have played them so many times We played against them in Dubai We know what is their strength what they dont like to do on the field We know all those things and we are going to discuss that It is a very important game They have got some match winners So it is going to be a great contest between these two teams Last time they were here we beat them comprehensivelySo we will try and do that again Obviously it is a different team from what we had last year so is their team he said The 27year old has had problems due to the slow over rate maintained by his side and he was fined Rs 24 lakh after the last match against RCB the teams second overrate offence and will miss a match for a subsequent overrate offence plus a cash penaltyAt the end of the day we are playing professional cricket Everyone should realise that We cannot be giving any excuses when it comes to slow over rate It is common sense simple basic things which needs to be remembered while you are on the field After every over you need to run get back to your position which I think we are not doing Last match because of the dew also we took some timeThe ball was getting wet and it was difficult for the bowlers so we had to wipe it and that was taking little time But no excuses we want to make sure that we are on time We want to be a professional unit when it comes to all this We have already spoken about it what we need to do and guys will take responsibility on the field We have told everyone to captain themselves on the field and to understand where to stand and get back to their positionsSo hopefully we will try and do that he said The Mumbai batsman said he is pleased that the batting and bowling departments have both been doing well since they returned from UAE where they lost five matches on the trot As a captain you look forward to get a big performance whether it is batting or bowling We were bowling really well in Dubai batting wasnt clicking but since we have got back to India both the departments have been doing really wellEspecially the last game against RCB the bowlers did a very good job Although the score was 187 to defend I thought it wasnt easy because there was too much dew on the field It wasnt easy for bowlers to grip the ball Jasprit Bumrah and Pawan Suyal bowled really well Those wickets in the middle cost them the game he said He also praised senior offspinner Harbhajan Singh and said He is someone we look forward to It is pleasing to see that he is trying for wickets We expect a lot and he is delivering He is flighting the ball which is good to see