GREAT EXPERIENCE

Rohit Sharma has said that it was an enjoyable experience to captain the Mumbai Indians in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders, but, he also admitted that he was nervous in the last two overs of the match.

In the match against Kolkata Knight Riders, Ricky Ponting decided to take a break and gave Rohit Sharma the chance to lead the team. The start was not good for Rohit as he lost the toss and then, in the first over of the match, the KKR openers scored 26.

But, Rohit showed calmness and kept rotating his bowlers. His field placings were also good and his bowlers slowly managed to pull things back.

The Knight Riders managed to score just 159 in 20 overs even after getting that rapid start and that total was chased down successfully by Mumbai Indians. However, the game had become exciting towards the end, but, Mumbai’s lower order batsman Harbhajan Singh hit a crucial six in the last over and turned the match in Mumbai’s favour.

Talking to the reporters after the match, Rohit said, “It was the first experience of captaincy for me and it was quite enjoyable. I just tried to be calm out there. We didn’t get a great start, but, I always knew that we had bowlers who could bring us back into the match.”

“Malinga and Johnson bowled beautifully in the death overs. Especially, Malinga’s last over was absolutely terrific.”

“It was a slow, low kind of a surface. So, it was important to make the new ball count because batting was not going to be easy after the 10^th over mark. So, the plan was to attack in the power play and Dwayne Smith executed that plan brilliantly. It was really a fine half century by him.”