Mumbai Indians cemented their spot in the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs after beating Sunrisers Hyderabad via the one-over eliminator at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya got us over the finish line in the super over after the match had ended in a tie with both sides scoring 162. As a result of the win, MI moved up to second in the standings and can ensure a top-two finish by beating Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. Finishing in the top two spots is crucial since it gives us two chances of progressing to the final.

Mumbai won the toss and opted to set a target for SRH to chase. After the game, skipper Rohit Sharma explained his reasoning behind batting first. “This year the conditions are such that during the second half, the ball starts spinning because of the dew. If there is moisture on the pitch, the spinners come into the game. When we played RCB here, in spite of getting 70 runs in the first six overs, we still struggled to chase it down. We got to the last over and chased it down. The pitch behaviour has been up and down. For such situations, we thought that we should bat first and put runs on the board, and then defend,” he told reporters at the post-match press conference.

Rohit continued: “I know our bowling is good. Against CSK too, we made 170 and defended it. Today we almost defended 160, 163 was not a big target but we bowled well. With that confidence only we said that let’s bat first and defend. We wanted to put pressure on their batsmen as we knew that two of their players (David Warner and Jonny Bairstow) have gone back and the rest have not played much. We knew even we if made 150, it would be tough for them to chase.”

When asked if promoting Pollard and Hardik to deal with MI’s middle-order concerns in the future had crossed his mind, Rohit said: “That is an option we are open with. You never know who can bat where at any stage. Mostly they have come in the 14th-15th over and scored 70-80 runs. We won’t forget what they have done. We need to look at the opposition as well. If they have quality in the middle, we have to change our plan accordingly. The positive for us is that, from number three to number seven, all our batsmen are flexible and can bat anywhere. We want our best batsman to bat more and put pressure on the opposition.”

Our skipper also admitted that he was delighted to qualify for the playoffs with a game in hand. “It is a good positive for us to qualify for playoffs with one game to spare. As a team we have put a lot of effort right from the start of the tournament. So, I think whatever effort we have put in, these are the rewards for it. Those eight overs in the middle from the spinners were very crucial. Sometimes it can get difficult for spinners to bowl in tandem, but they are quality, those two spinners (Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya), they are quality,” Rohit explained.

“They understand the conditions really well. Vijay (Shankar) and Manish (Pandey) were batting and they have played enough cricket with them. They kept varying the length of where they wanted to bowl and they kept it very tight. I think those eight overs were the turning point in my opinion. If they (SRH) would have gotten away from that, things probably would not have fallen into place where we wanted it to. So, I thought they did a terrific job in the middle. A wet ball is not easy, but they bowled very well,” he added.