After finishing the IPL 2024 season at the bottom of the points table, Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mark Boucher looked back and spoke his heart on a number of challenges the team faced over the last two months. After losing to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Mumbai's Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season came to an abrupt end, finishing last in the IPL standings. As MI's disastrous season ended in the IPL 2024, Boucher was asked about the future of former skipper Rohit Sharma with the team and the head coach said that the opener is a master of his own destiny.
In MI's last match of the season, opener Rohit showed the erratic nature of T20I by going through a slump after a bright start to the season.
"For me, he is a master of his own destiny. It's a big auction next season who knows what's going to happen?" Boucher said in a post-match press conference.
Talking about the former MI skipper's performance, Boucher said it was a season of two halves for the opener as he had a strong start to the season and hammered the ball well into the netting. The head coach also said that Rohit was headed in the right direction so that we could run some excellent races.
"I had a discussion with Rohit Sharma last night. We reviewed the season this year. After that, I asked him what's next? and Rohit said 'the World Cup'", he added.
In the Indian Premier League on Friday, Rohit broke a run of poor scores when he struck an incredible 68 off 38 deliveries in the Mumbai match against LSG.
"It's almost a season of two halves for him. He started the season well and hit the ball sweetly in the nets. He got a superb 100 against CSK as well. So we honestly thought he was on a great path for us to go out there and get some good runs," Boucher said.
In a season beset by controversy for the MI, Rohit's batting performance was as inconsistent. Rohit's fortunes collapsed after he made a promising start to the season with the bat, which featured a century against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) but in his next six appearances, the opener was dismissed on four single-digit scores.
"Unfortunately, it's just the nature of T20 as well. He went out there trying to be aggressive, the new way of playing as an opening batter. He got a few low scores, which unfortunately didn't help us in that particular situation either. But tonight, he finished off with a fantastic knock as well. So yeah, it is a season of two halves for him," he added.
MI fans had mixed emotions on a bittersweet evening at the Wankhede Stadium. While they were thrilled with Rohit's explosive fifty but also witnessed their team suffer their tenth loss of the year and drop to the bottom of the points table.
Coming to the match, Rohit and Naman Dhir's fiery knocks went in vain as MI conceded an 18-run loss against LSG in the IPL 2024 match at the Wankhede Stadium.
After winning the toss MI sent LSG to bat first but that did not go in their favour as KL Rahul (55 runs from 41 balls, 3 fours and 3 sixes) and Nicholas Pooran (75 runs from 29 balls, 5 fours and 8 sixes) played a fiery knock in the first inning. Marcus Stoinis (28 runs from 22 balls, 5 fours) and Ayush Badoni (22* runs from 10 balls, 1 four and 2 sixes) were the other standout batters for LSG as they propelled the visitors to 214/6.
In the run chase, the hosts had a stupendous start while chasing a 215-run target but after the end of the fourth over, rain played a spoilsport for which the game was halted for a few minutes. However, that did not break the MI openers' momentum as Rohit Sharma (68 runs from 38 balls, 10 fours and 3 sixes) and Dewald Brevis (23 runs from 20 balls, 1 four and 2 sixes) played a partnership of 88 runs.
Naman Dhir's (62* runs from 28 balls, 4 fours and 5 sixes) stunning knock in the later half of the run chase shed a ray of hope on the MI dugout as they thought the hosts could win the match but he failed to clinch a win in the end and conceded a 18-run loss.
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