Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma hammered his 2nd half century of the ongoing Indian Premier League season against Kings XI Punjab on Thursday in Abu Dhabi. The right-handed batsman reached 5000 IPL runs during the course of the innings, becoming the third member of the IPL 5000 club after Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina.
Rohit, after completing his half century, also went on to equal a huge record held by Chennai Super Kings’ Suresh Raina. Rohit now has 38 IPL fifties, and both Raina and Rohit hold the record of scoring most half centuries in the tournament by an Indian player.
Both Rohit and Raina are now tied at the 2nd place in the list, only behind Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner with 44 IPL fifties.
After being put to bat first at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, MI posted 191 for 4 in 20 overs. The defending champions did not have the best start as they lost Quinton de Kock in the very first over of the match off Sheldon Cottrell’s bowling before No. 3 batsman Suryakumar Yadav got run out three overs later. MI captain Rohit led from the front as his half-century helped MI recover from the disastrous start.
Rohit scored 70 from 45 balls and the knock was inclusive of three sixes and eight fours. In the 15th over, which was bowled by KXIP pacer Mohammed Shami, as Rohit tried to hit a big six, a relay catch between Glenn Maxwell and Jimmy Neesham ended Rohit’s knock, leaving MI at 124 for 4. The duo of Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard charged against the KXIP’s bowling attack, in the end, to take their side to a respectable total of 191. MI hammered 104 runs off the last six overs, and that included 25-run 20the over bowled by Krishnappa Gowtham. The Karnataka bowler was smashed for four sixes: three by Pollard and one by Pandya. In the penultimate over, Shami was hit for four fours and Neesham leaked 57 in his four overs including 40 in his last two.
