Last Updated on 4 years ago by Charbel Coorey

Cricket News: “Not been playing good cricket for a while” – MI captain Rohit | MI captain Rohit Sharma speaks after fifth-consecutive defeat in IPL 2022

The number five is exclusively met with joy by all associated with the Mumbai Indians (MI). With their five titles, MI are aguably the greatest T20 franchise ever, with an incredible ability to win the big moments.

When they have missed the playoffs since 2013, they have come back to win the title the next season. This time, however, they have suffered five consecutive defeats to start the season, which already puts them on very thin ice in a 10-team league. While the form of Baby AB Dewald Brevis, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma has been a positive, the bowling, apart from Jasprit Bumrah, has been of huge concern.

It was on show again as Punjab Kings amassed close to 200 in Pune.

“MI have not been playing good cricket for a while. That’s why we’ve been on the losing side” – Rohit

Speaking at the post-match press conference, MI captain Rohit Sharma praised elements of his team’s batting. Also, he said the franchise is working hard to find the right formula, which has eluded them so far.

“We’re trying to find different ideas, different thought processes,” Rohit said.

“It doesn’t seem to be working at the moment but I don’t want to take anything away from the guys. We fought pretty well. We batted brilliantly, but they held their nerves pretty good, the Kings, and they won the game. We’ve been not playing good cricket for a while and that’s why we’ve been on the losing side, simple as that.”

Rohit also lamented MI’s inability to hold their nerve in the crunch moments – an attribute that often served them so well in the past. They were on par with the run rate for the most part, as they were against Rajasthan Royals earlier this season before falling away.

I thought we played the game pretty well, came pretty close towards the back end of our batting innings,” said the MI captain. “It’s just that a couple of crucial runouts there was not needed, but that happens. At one stage we were cruising through and keeping up with the run rate as well, but in the end we couldn’t hold our nerves. Credit to Kings with the way they bowled at the backend.

“The Kings batted pretty well up front and put pressure on our bowlers, got a 90-100 run partnership to begin with. But I thought 190+ was chaseable on that pitch because that pitch was really good to bat on as you saw when we were batting as well. We just have to go back and see what we do as a team.”

Rohit Sharma

It is desperation time for the Mumbai Indians as they sit six points behind the fourth-placed Lucknow Super Giants. Given how competitive the league is (RCB in sixth also on six points), MI will need a miracle to turn their form around enough to quality for the playoffs.

They have a quick turnaround as they play Lucknow on Saturday in a day game at Brabourne.