Hyderabad, Apr 7 : Traditionally a slow starter, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma says he wants his team to win most of its initial matches this IPL season, as some of his players will leave for World Cup preparations at the back-end.
“We want to win as many games as possible at the start because we know how hectic it gets in the end. A few of the guys leaving for the World Cup doesn’t help either,” Rohit said after his team’s victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad Saturday night.
“We don’t want to be a team who starts off poorly.”
The win was made possible by Alzarri Joseph’s dream IPL debut, returning with figures of 6/12, which is the best in the league’s history.
Rohit was in awe of the young pacer from the West Indies.
“It was a sensational bowling effort from Alzarri, to bowl like this in first game. He’s come in with a lot of confidence from the CPL and he’s carrying it here,” Rohit said.
Joseph broke the back of the Sunrisers Hyderabad batting order as he helped Mumbai Indians defend a below-par total of 136 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Earlier, a brisk 46 from Kieron Pollard helped Mumbai Indians finish on a decent note.
“We didn’t bat well to start with, kept losing wickets and we knew after a few overs that it wasn’t a 170-180 pitch. The pitch was under covers for a day, it was raining as well and the wicket was a bit sticky,” Rohit said.
“So we knew that 140 would be a good score to defend because we’ve got the quality in our bowling and we back them to defend whatever we get.
“We knew that once we got an early wicket we were in the game and with the spin and the seamers we have, we knew we could knock them out in the middle,” the MI captain added.
Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Bhuveneshwar Kumar felt dropping Pollard cost his team the match.
“I think it started off when we dropped Pollard, he scored 25-30 runs – it is a huge margin. It could have been an easy chase if we would have applied ourselves. When you drop catches it is never easy,” he said.
“There is less margin for error (when you are bowling) but you need to grab your chances to restrict any team to under 120,” Bhuvneshwar said.
It was the third win for Mumbai Indians in five games while Hyderabad suffered their second loss in five matches.
Joseph breaks Sohail Tanveer’s record
HYDERABAD: West Indies paceman Alzarri Joseph enjoyed a dream Indian Premier League (IPL) debut claiming beast ever figures of 6-12 to break Pakistan’s Sohail Tanveer’s 8-year-old record.
The Caribbean fast bowler created history in his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians as he went past the previous best bowling effort of Pakistan´s Sohail Tanvir for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL´s inaugural edition in 2008.
Joseph, who replaced the injured Adam Milne of New Zealand for the Mumbai squad, bowled a maiden in 3.4 overs to help his team thrash hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad by 40 runs.
Sharing his words, the 22-yer-old lanky paceman said: “When I got my first wicket, I had a muted celebration since I was focused on the game that we had to win. The boys are really playing well, lot of hard work, so all we need to do is go to the park and show them what we can do.”
Joseph got the in-form David Warner of Australia for 15 on his very first ball. It was a fuller length delivery from Joseph that the left-handed Warner dragged on to his stumps.
He added: “It´s a dream start, can´t get better than this. I just wanted to bowl to the plans. When they said I was playing, I decided to keep it simple and back myself.”
HYDERABAD: West Indies paceman Alzarri Joseph enjoyed a dream Indian Premier League (IPL) debut claiming beast ever figures of 6-12 to break Pakistan’s Sohail Tanveer’s 8-year-old record.
