Jaipur, May 1 Mumbai Indians (MI) opener Rohit Sharma said his intention during his knock of 53 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 game at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium was to hit as much straight as possible due to the skiddy nature of the pitch.
Apart from hitting a sublime 53, where his timing of shots stood out in his third fifty of the season, Rohit shared a stellar 116-run opening stand with Ryan Rickleton, who hit 61. It was the first instance of MI getting a century stand from their opening pair in IPL 2025.
All of this looked impossible if Rohit hadn’t survived an lbw decision early on off Fazalhaq Farooqi, with his timely review showing the ball had pitched outside the leg stump. "It was important to get off to a good start. Looking at a couple of overs, the ball was coming on nicely and we took our chances.”
“Wanted to hit straight as much as possible. It was kind of skidding, we thought that hitting in a straight direction was a good option. The only thing I was worried about was if it was pitching in line or not, it was a knuckleball, so I knew it wouldn’t bounce over. Took my chance and it paid off.”
“(Rickelton) works really hard on his game and understands his game very well. Understands which bowler to target and picks his spot well. If he continues to bat like that, it augurs very well for us,” said Rohit in a mid-innings chat with the broadcasters.
With Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya hitting an unbeaten 48 each, MI managed to finish at 217/2 in 20 overs. Rohit backed MI’s bowling line-up to defend the total easily.
“Nice for us to get off to that start. It’s very important for us to understand the pitch and use the variations. We shouldn't be predictable and use the longer side well,” he said.
“The guys are pretty experienced in what they do and understand what is expected of them. It’s a good score, and we can hopefully defend it. If we get a couple of wickets in the power-play, we can put the brakes on them. If you look at our batting line-up, a lot of these guys haven’t batted for a few games.”
“Gives us the confidence to go out there and bat freely. Most often, it comes off knowing that we’ve got a strong middle order. Even in the last game, those 30-40 runs by (Corbin) Bosch made a difference,” he concluded.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor