IPL 2020: 'It was probably our worst performance of the season' - Rohit Sharma on Mumbai Indians' loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad

Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma has labelled their 10-wicket loss against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) as their worst performance in IPL 2020.

He made this observation while reflecting on the defeat in the post-match press conference.

Rohit Sharma started by acknowledging that the Mumbai Indians were not up to the mark in yesterday's encounter.

"We were certainly not expecting a result like that. It was probably our worst performance of the season and we want to leave this performance right here."

The Mumbai Indians captain added that the franchise experimented a bit with their combination since they had already made sure of their place in the first qualifier.

"Having said that, we also wanted to try out a few things knowing that we have qualified in the top two. We wanted to try different combinations and a different batting order. It clearly didn't work out for us but it is a good learning for us also."

.@ImRo45: We wanted to try out a few things and it didn't go our way.#OneFamily #MumbaiIndians #Dream11IPL #SRHvMI

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) November 3, 2020

Rohit Sharma observed that it was an opportune moment for the Mumbai Indians to test their bench strength while iterating that the one-sided defeat they suffered was not expected.

"You sometimes need to know your bench strength also because we still have some more games to play, so that was the thought but still having said that, we didn't want a result like that."

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Rohit Sharma on the Mumbai Indians looking forward to the playoffs

The Mumbai Indians will be facing the Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2020 [P/C: iplt20.com]

Talking about the upcoming playoffs, Rohit Sharma mentioned that the knockout matches will be a different kettle of fish, and expressed hope that the Mumbai Indians would not make the same mistakes in those encounters.

"The playoffs will be a different ball game. We have been in playoffs many a times before and we do understand the pressures of being in playoffs. Of course, we did a lot of mistakes today from the bat to start with, we were not good with the bat and certainly, we cannot afford to do that in the playoffs."

He added that the Mumbai Indians batsmen need to be more selective in their strokeplay while keeping this game on the back burner and concentrating on the upcoming matches.

"We need to be smart in terms of our shot selection which we didn't do right today. We need to forget this game as quickly as possible and try and focus on what's coming for us."

Rohit Sharma signed off by pointing out that the Mumbai Indians are high on confidence and would be back to their former self in the playoff encounters.

"We will regroup and understand what we need to do as a team collectively. The team is looking in good morale, forget the loss but overall we have played well through the tournament and I expect Mumbai Indians to play in the similar fashion."

The Mumbai Indians were restricted to a below-par score of 149/8 in yesterday's encounter. The Sunrisers Hyderabad openers, David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha, made light work of the target as they romped home to a 10-wicket win.

The Mumbai Indians will be keen to bounce back from this annihilation when they face the Delhi Capitals in the first qualifier of IPL 2020 to be played on Thursday.

Check the IPL 2020 playoffs schedule here.

Only onwards and upwards from here! 💪💙#OneFamily #MumbaiIndians #MI #Dream11IPL #SRHvMI @ImRo45 pic.twitter.com/CLYBZhxSxs

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) November 3, 2020