IPL
Rohit urges Mumbai batters to step up
|| CF DESK ||
Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma urged the batters to step up their game after Sunday's 36-run defeat against the Lucknow Super Giants, which was their eight-straight defeat in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Mumbai have won the IPL a record five times but this year have failed to come anywhere near their best, suffering eight successive defeats.
Lucknow captain KL Rahul smashed an unbeaten 103 off 62 balls as his side set a target of 169 at the Wankhede Stadium. After the defeat, captain Sharma said poor batting has hurt his team the most.
"When you have a target like that, it is very crucial to string those partnerships. We didn't do that, and then a few irresponsible shots including from myself. We couldn't get the momentum when we needed it,"
"We haven't batted well enough in this tournament. The whole thing goes on the batting unit. Whoever plays in the middle needs to take that responsibility and make sure one of the batters bats long. We've failed to do that,"