Mumbai (PTI): Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma feels that senior players, including the skipper himself, need to step up and put up an improved batting show after losing their first two IPL games.
Rohit, along with Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan, are yet to come to the party as MI lost by seven wickets to CSK here on Saturday.
"The senior guys need to step up, starting with me. We know the nature of IPL. We need to get some momentum, and if you don't it is going to be tough," Rohit said after the match.
Rohit urged his batters to try different things.
"We need to try different things, need to attack, need to be brave. We have a couple of guys who are young into the IPL. Got to give some time to them. It will take time, but we need to back them up and show enough trust in their ability."
The MI skipper feels that all is not lost.
"Just two games, not all is lost, but the senior guys need to step up with the bat. That's the nature of the tournament. If you win, you can win on the trot. If you lose, it will hamper the momentum. We wanted to do a lot of things right."
He did admit that they were at least 40 runs short of what would have been a competitive score.
"We lost our way in the middle. We did not capitalise on the start. It was a good pitch, we were 30-40 runs short in the middle. Credit to their spinners, they bowled well, kept us under pressure and we did not respond well," he said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rajkot(PTI): Openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal scored a century each to power India to their highest-ever total of 435/5 in the third and final women's ODI against Ireland here on Wednesday.
Mandhana (135) and Rawal (154) shared a whopping 233-run stand to give a solid start to India after opting to bat.
The big-hitting Richa Ghosh then scored a quickfire 59 to further inflate India's total as the Irish bowlers struggled to find answers.
Medium pacer Orla Prendergast (2/71) was the most susccesfull bowler for the visitors with two wickets.
Brief Score:
India 435 for 5 in 50 overs (Pratika Rawal 154, Smriti Mandhana 135; Orla Prendergast 2/71)