IPL 2021: “Winning tournament more important than winning the first match” – Rohit Sharma

History continued to haunt the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL 2021 as they lost their opening fixture for the ninth straight year. After the side’s two-wicket loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Chennai, MI skipper Rohit Sharma stated that it is important to win the IPL and not the first game.

Though Mumbai haven’t won their first match for the ninth consecutive time, they have ended as IPL champions 5 times out of the 8 completed editions since 2013.

Mumbai made 159 batting first on a slow pitch. A brilliant last over from RCB pacer Patel restricted MI from reaching a high score.

Bangalore made a fast start to their innings but kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Rohit Sharma lauded his side for their efforts to take the match into the last over.

“Winning the championship is important, I guess, not the first game. I thought it was a great effort. Great fight till the end, and we didn’t let it go easily. We were 20 runs short, so not happy with the score. We made some mistakes, those are bound to happen. We need to move on,” said Rohit Sharma, who scored a 15-ball 19 before getting run out.

Although Jasprit Bumrah pulled the game back in Mumbai’s favor, AB de Villiers’ spectacular 27-ball 48 on a difficult batting surface allowed RCB back into the contest.

Praising AB’s batting on a not-so-easy batting surface in Chennai, Rohit Sharma added:

“We wanted to get wickets when AB and Dan Christian were batting, which is why we went with Bumrah and Boult. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Definitely, it was not an easy pitch to bat on. We need to identify the situations and get variations. AB was brilliant and got them home.”

#RCB win the #VIVOIPL 2021 season opener against #MI by two wickets.Scorecard - https://t.co/PiSqZirK1V #MIvRCB #VIVOIPL pic.twitter.com/87Cu6fkXO3

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 9, 2021

Happy to give India something to look forward to in these tough COVID-19 times: Rohit Sharma

As India continues to struggle to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, Rohit Sharma believes that cricketers are a fortunate lot to be able to play and give the country something to look forward to.

“We are fortunate enough to be able to be in the park and put some smiles on the faces of people in India. The country is going through tough times. Happy to give them something to look forward to,” Rohit Sharma further added.

Mumbai Indians play their next match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the same venue in Chennai on Tuesday.