Despite acing yet another 200-plus chase, Mumbai Indians need Gujarat Titans to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last league game of IPL 2023 to confirm their playoff spot. If they don't make the cut, their captain Rohit Sharma feels that they only have themselves to blame.
Mumbai's win over Sunrisers Hyderabad took them to 16 points with a net run rate of -0.044, and even though RCB have 14 entering their last fixture, they have a superior NRR (0.180) already. For Mumbai to have gone past RCB's NRR, they would've had to win in 12 overs with the assumption that RCB win by one run.
"We came with the mindset of winning the game and not worrying about what happens elsewhere," Rohit said after the match. "What you can control, you can control and hope for the best. If we don't go through, we have ourselves to blame for it. If we go through, I'll give all the credit to the boys. That's the last thing you want - to be dependent on the other results.
"Last year we did a big favour to RCB, I hope the result comes what we are looking for."
In IPL 2022, RCB needed Mumbai to beat Delhi Capitals in their last league game to go through to the playoffs. Mumbai, who were already eliminated by then, went on to beat Capitals by five wickets.
While summing up Mumbai's season, Rohit looked back at two games - against Punjab Kings at home and against Lucknow Super Giants away - as ones they should have won. Against Kings, Mumbai needed 40 off the last three overs with seven wickets in hand and a set Suryakumar in the middle. But Arshdeep Singh and Nathan Ellis denied them. Against LSG, chasing 178, they were 92 for 1 after ten overs but couldn't close out the game.
"We did a lot of things right as we went along," Rohit said. "We lost a couple of games at the start and won three on the trot. The crucial moments in the game that we lost… if I have to look back there are a lot of moments like that. The game against Punjab here, we needed 30-34 [40] off 18 balls. We could have played well there. Against LSG, we had the game in our hands after the first half of the innings. But can't look too much into that. I am sure the guys want to do well but sometimes it doesn't come off."
Green: 'Thinking was to just win and put pressure on RCB'
Cameron Green, who starred with an unbeaten 100 off 47 balls, also said that they were not thinking about the NRR situation. "Our intention was to win the game," he said. "We were not going to chase down a total in the seventh over or anything to try to boost our net run rate. The thinking was to just win and put pressure on RCB."
Earlier, Green, who came in at No. 3, and Rohit added 128 in 10.2 overs for the second wicket. Talking about the partnership, Green said: "It was absolutely awesome being out there with Rohit. We helped each other through that. Chasing 200 you got to show intent at the top. I was trying to smack the spinners and he was batting beautifully against pace bowlers.
"With me and Rohit batting, it's awesome knowing you have got SKY [Suryakumar Yadav] after you. Watching those guys in the nets and then you have got Polly [Kieron Pollard] to help with range hitting. That's a pretty good setup we have got."
Green smashed eight fours and eight sixes in his unbeaten innings. However, towards the end, with Green on 99 and Mumbai needing just one to win, he and Suryakumar refused to take a bye. On the next ball, Green hit the winning single to bring up his hundred.
"When we had 20 to get, I just said to SKY, just finish it," Green said. "We've obviously come here to win the game firstly, so make sure you do that. Then we had a couple of runs left, we just trickled over the line."
Green has spent the best part of the last four months in India, as part of the touring Australians for the Tests as well as the ODIs first, and now at the IPL. He said that playing in the subcontinent was "valuable" as prep for the upcoming ODI World Cup which will be held in India.
"Getting exposed any time you can to subcontinent conditions - as an Australian you are not really used to how low the ball skids at times, how much it spins at times - any experience you get over here is so valuable for us who bat in pretty different conditions," he said. "The past three and a half months I have had here is so valuable and hopefully holds me in good stead coming here again and I can pass it over to other guys who come over."