Bengaluru May 20 (IANS) A team effort every time has been Mumbai Indians key to success captain Rohit Sharma said after their facile six-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) second qualifier game at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.
That s been the hallmark of this team - we ve not depended on one individual. It s all about teamwork and we ve been doing that regularly. Good to see when individuals take responsibility Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Mumbai rode on Karn Sharma (4/16) and Jasprit Bumrah s (3/7) brilliant bowling effort to skittle KKR out for 107 inside 18.5 overs.
While chasing Krunal Pandya s unbeaten 45 was enough to see off their rivals and book a final berth where they will take on Steve Smith s Rising Pune Supergiant on Sunday.
We ve been working hard. So we don t want to shy away from going into the finals the hard way.
We deserve to be in the final. We ve played really good cricket through the tournament. We played a great game today. When you have a performance like that it gives you confidence. Bowlers set the game up for us Rohit said.
Lauding his bowlers the India opener said: Their performance was very pleasing. Taking wickets at regular intervals. We always knew that wicket wasn t going to be easy so we wanted to restrict the score.
Karn Sharma bowled really well and set the game up for us. It s something we ve been talking about (Bumrah with the new ball). We all know Bumrah is a wicket-taking bowler. KKR have a top-heavy batting so we wanted to get them out early. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn t. Sometimes I rely on my gut feel. We kept changing bowlers he said on handing Bumrah the new ball.
On the final Rohit said: It s going to be an exciting contest. We don t have a good history with that team. We have to focus on what we need to do as a team. Hyderabad is a different venue so we need to assess conditions quickly. It s all about getting used to those conditions.
--IANS
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We deserve to be in the final: Rohit Sharma
