"I thought we had the game till the 15th over" - Rohit Sharma reflects on MI's third consecutive defeat in IPL 2022 

Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma believes his side were in the game until the 15th over of the second innings. The five-time champions suffered their third loss in a row after losing to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by five wickets at the MCA Stadium in Pune.

The match was arguably well poised heading into the death-overs of the chase. However, a close finish was ruled out following a scintillating innings by Pat Cummins. The Australian registered the joint-fastest fifty in IPL history to finish the game off with four overs to spare.

Commending Pat Cummins for his unbeaten knock of 56 off 15 deliveries, Sharma said during the post-match presentation:

"Never expected him to come and play like that, a lot of credit to him for the way he played,"

Assessing the fresh pitch at the MCA Stadium as a good one to play cricket on, Sharma said:

"The pitch got better and better as the game went on. Early on, it was just holding up a little bit. Overall, it was a good pitch to play cricket. i just thought, with the bat we did not start well, but towards the end, in the last four or five overs, to get 70 plus was a great effort from the batting unit."

Sharma continued:

"We did not bowl according to the plan, I thought we had the game till the 15th over, but the way Cummins came in and played was brilliant."

With this loss, MI moved to the penultimate spot in the IPL points table, only marginally ahead of SRH. The Hyderabad outfit have a match in hand.

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"I don't want to be in this position all the time" - Rohit Sharma on MI's slow start

Chasing 162 on a tricky surface, the asking rate was never a pressing issue for KKR. However, the constant fall of wickets kept Mumbai in the game. The five-time champions had also sent Andre Russell back to the pavilion before he could inflict any severe damage.

Opining that the wickets of either Venkatesh Iyer or Pat Cummins could have done the trick , Sharma said:

"When there are runs on the board, I always believe that we have the upper hand. because we had them five down, it was just a matter of the wicket of Venky or Pat, they had Sunil who could smash them. This will be hard to digest, the way it turned out in the last few overs. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us."

When asked about his IPL team's recurring tendencies to begin the tournament with a series of losses, the captain said:

"I don't want to be in this position all the time"

According to the IPL schedule, Mumbai Indians will next face the in-form Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the same venue on April 9 (Saturday).