It was a disappointing night for our fans as we were handed defeat by the Gujarat Lions. This loss was a blow to our chance to make it to the playoffs. Rohit Sharma felt that 15 more runs would have made a huge difference to the outcome. “If you see the whole match, you’ll see that in the last two overs we couldn’t make a lot of runs. I think had we made another 15 more runs we could have set a higher target of 180-185. We didn’t make enough runs in the last 2 overs, so we couldn’t post a bigger target. Had we made anything above 185, we could have made it difficult for them to chase.” Having said that Rohit admits the Lions played well despite their early loss of Finch. “The way they batted after the fall of the first wicket was marvellous. As a bowling unit we tried everything we could but nothing worked. Credit should be given for the way they batted.”

There were a lot of blunders by many players throughout the game. Rohit defends the team’s fielding. “Miss-fielding and dropping catches is part and parcel of the game. Everyone knew it was a crucial game, everyone put in the efforts but sometimes mistakes happen. We fielded very well in our last three games we always try to maintain the consistency in fielding but mishaps happen. Our season has had its ups and downs, we couldn’t maintain consistency for three or four games.”

“Hats off to Rana,” Rohit says on Nitish’s brilliant innings, which was one of the factors that helped MI post a score of 172. “It was a brilliant knock under pressure, he went in at a crucial stage of the game, to be able to score at that pace and to keep the momentum going was difficult. Seeing him playing like that was fantastic.” The skipper intends to keep an eye on this particular talent. “He definitely has a future prospect; something to look forward to as far as Indian Cricket is concerned. He has showed glimpses of his talent, especially in his game against Delhi. Hope he maintains his form and keeps scoring runs in domestic cricket. IPL is a big stage, if you do well here, your performance will get recognized.”

The chances to get to the playoffs look bleak but Rohit hasn’t lost hope yet. “This has been the most competitive year. We have to wait for the next two games to see what happens, we are keeping our fingers crossed. We need a lot of things to go our way.” He is thankful for the efforts put in by the team and everyone involved. “The amount of preparation done before and during the tournament is immense, hats off to everyone and special mention to the support staff. The amount of effort they have put in and what they do behind the scenes is as good as what we do on the field. They create the environment to go and perform on and express ourselves. When I look back on the tournament am not disappointed as yes there are things we could improve as a team.”