Mumbai Indians lost their match against Kings XI Punjab by a narrow margin of seven runs. This defeat is of little consequence to Mumbai as they have already qualified for the play-offs but one issue which was highlighted in this game could trouble them once again.
Mumbai’s captain Rohit Sharma yet again got out to a leg spinner in the match and that too in the early phase of his innings. In this year’s IPL, Sharma is going through a lean patch but importantly his struggle against leg spinners is something which is hurting Mumbai fans a lot. Out of his 11 dismissals this season, five have come against leg spinners.
Here we look at those instances in this year’s IPL when a leg-spinner dismissed the Mumbai captain.
#5 Versus Imran Tahir, RPS - April 6
Rohit Sharma’s troubles against leg spinners started from the very first match of this year. Against Rising Pune Supergiant he got out to Imran Tahir.
Sharma came to the crease after the opening pair gave Mumbai a solid start. The Mumbai skipper, in the initial phase, looked to get his eye in and hence was focusing only on rotating the strike. However, in the seventh over of the innings, Tahir came up with an excellent plan against him and in the end, got his wicket.
The South African leg-spinner bowled the first delivery with some flight and invited Sharma to come on the front foot. On the next ball, he offered some dip and forced Sharma to miss the line of the ball. The ball took the inside edge of Sharma’s bat and luckily for him, it landed safely.
These two deliveries were enough to plant doubts in the mind of the right-hand batsman and hence while playing the third ball, he was in two minds and didn’t know whether to go on the front foot or the back foot.
As a result, he completely misread the googly and the ball crashed on to his stumps after finding a gap between his bat and pad. Sharma scored only three runs from seven balls in the inning.
#4 Versus Rashid Khan, SRH - April 12
Chasing a tricky target of 159, Mumbai lost Jos Butler in the third over and Sharma was once again at the crease inside the powerplay overs. He got off to a scratchy start and when Rashid Khan came into the attack in the fifth over, the Mumbai captain was looking anything but confident.
On the fifth ball, Rashid delivered a googly on a good length which Sharma had no clue about. The right-hand batsman went to play for the spin and planted his front foot in the line of the stumps. But the ball came in after pitching and struck Sharma’s pads after missing his bat.
The umpire had no hesitation in raising his finger as Sharma was found plumb in front of the stumps. He scored four runs from eight balls in the game.
#3 Versus Samuel Badree, RCB - April 14
One day later, after his dismissal against Rashid, Rohit was once again lined up against another leg spinner. In the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Indian batsman came to bat when Samuel Badree was on absolute fire.
Defending a modest total of 143, RCB bowlers put up a spirited performance and picked up three wickets when Mumbai’s score was only seven runs.
Badree sent back Parthiv Patel and McClenaghan on successive deliveries and was on a hat-trick when Sharma took guard against him. Badree relied on his googly for the hat-trick ball and it went through Rohit’s defence.
Like his dismissal against Rashid, this time too, Rohit failed to read the googly and played for the turn. A huge gap between bat and pad allowed the ball to castle the batsman’s stumps. Badree got his hat-trick while the Mumbai captain was out for a first-ball duck.
#2 Versus Amit Mishra, DD - April 22
In the match against Delhi Daredevils, Kagiso Rabada and Pat Cummins’ pace wrecked Mumbai’s top order and Rohit Sharma was forced to come to the crease in the sixth over.
Zaheer Khan straightway gave the ball to Amit Mishra, Delhi’s ace leg spinner as Rohit’s troubles against leg spinners had become obvious by then.
On the first ball of the eighth over, Mishra bowled a wrong one and this time, Rohit was able to pick the variation. However, his execution was terrible as his sweep shot went straight into the hands of Pat Cummins, who was standing at long leg.
#1 Versus Rahul Tewatia, KXIP - May 11
After getting out to Mishra, Rohit worked on his technique and blasted two fifties in his next three innings. However, in the match against Kings XI Punjab, he once again perished to a leg spinner making it clear that his struggles were persistent.
On a flat Wankhede pitch, Mumbai Indians were chasing a mammoth target of 231 runs and Rohit came to bat after Mumbai’s openers gave a perfect start as they scored 100 runs inside nine overs.
But Rohit failed to make the most of the flourishing start as he got out to Rahul Tewatia, the little-known leg-spinner from Punjab.
Tewatia came to bowl in the 12th over and almost got Rohit’s wicket on his second ball. Rohit went for a lofted shot over long-off and mistimed it. Luckily for the Mumbai captain, the ball fell just in front of the fielder but on the fourth ball of the same over, he wasn’t that fortunate.
Tewatia bowled a short delivery and Rohit couldn’t resist from going for a wild swing. He aimed for a pull shot but made a flawed connection that resulted in a simple catch to the fielder at long-on.
Rohit was out for only five runs from seven balls and in the end, Mumbai lost the match by seven runs.
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
