07 April,2017 03:41 PM IST | | Shreeram Gokhale
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma and batsman Jos Buttler rue dropped catches after losing to Rising Pune Supergiant by seven wickets last night
Rohit Sharma
Pune: Mumbai Indians have an unenviable tag of being slow starters in the IPL. Going into their IPL-10 opener against the Rising Pune Supergiant at the MCA Stadium here, MI were looking for their first win in the season opener since 2012. And though they came mighty close last night, Steven Smith's blitz took the hosts past the finishing line, further increasing the MI's agonising wait.
Things could have been different though, had Nitish Rana caught Smith off McClenaghan, on 36. Then, Tim Southee dropping MS Dhoni off Jasprit Bumrah off the final ball of the 19th over didn't help either, although Dhoni just scored two more singles in the final over. "Fielding certainly didn't help us," Mumbai Indians' skipper Rohit Sharma admitted at the post-match presentation.
Opener Jos Buttler also admitted dropped catches proved to be costly. "It's a game of fine margins. When you create your chances, you want to grab them, but look, no one drops catches on purpose," the England batsman said.
Rajat Bhatia had earlier dropped a sitter during MI's batting, although it didn't prove to be too costly for the hosts. Interestingly, all the three catches that were dropped were in the same area, between deep square-leg and midwicket, if the bowler is running in from the media box end. "It was a bit difficult to sight the ball. The lights here are quite low and also wide. We practised hard, we tried to take those catches under those lights for two days, but when the ball goes high, it's a bit tricky. Those dropped catches can be big moments in the game, but it's quite difficult (to sight the ball here)," Buttler later explained.
Smith's 54-ball 84 took the game away from Mumbai. Buttler admitted it was tough to stop the Australian skipper. "It's difficult to stop a batsman in that kind of form. He is the best batsman in the world at the moment. No one seems to come up with a plan to stop him yet. The guys obviously formulate plans (for him), but he was just too good today," added Buttler.
MI certainly had their moments in the match, with the kind of start Parthiv Patel and Buttler gave them; and Hardik Pandya's heroics towards the end. McClenaghan and Bumrah bowled well at different stages of the encounter. But to win matches, they need to do a few more things better. Not depending on Kieron Pollard to bowl the final over, perhaps, won't be a bad start considering he was hammered for consecutive sixes to finish the match.
