5 Instances when Rohit Sharma pulled off unlikely wins in IPL

The last three seasons have been extremely tough with the bat for Rohit Sharma who did lead his franchise Mumbai Indians to two title victories. During the same period, he didn’t get to bat much in his prime positions due to an increase in younger Indian talent. This hasn’t made Rohit replicate some of his brilliant performances for which he was known for. There were times when Rohit Sharma used to take the game away from opposition’s grasp in the IPL and even made a case of being the best finisher in the history of the tournament.

Here we look at five knocks of Rohit Sharma in the IPL that helped his team to register stunning victories:

5. 87 (48) vs Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai, 2011

Mumbai Indians hosted Chennai Super Kings during the 2011 season game at the Wankhede. It was the first time the two sides clashed off since featuring in 2010 IPL final which CSK won. On a lively pitch, the MI lost their both openers for only 13 runs despite playing 3.4 overs. Rohit Sharma, walking out to bat for the first time in an MI-CSK clash, smashed three fours in the first four balls he faced. He found boundaries regularly while the runs dried up from the other end.

He added 61 runs in 7.3 overs with Ambati Rayudu for the 3rd wicket as MI crawled to 74/3 in 11.1 overs. Rohit brought up his fifty in only 31 balls with three successive boundaries off Suraj Randiv spread across two overs. He turned dangerous after his fifty as he raced to 87 from 47 balls by end of 19th over. He was dismissed on the first ball of the 20th over falling 13 short of his maiden IPL century. MI scored 68 runs in their last six overs to finish with 164/4 out of which Rohit scored 41 off 18 balls.

He smashed 8 fours and 5 sixes during his 48-ball 87 but player of the match award went to Harbhajan Singh who claimed a 5-wicket haul. CSK raced to 98/2 by 12th over as MI failed to make use of the swing early before Bhajji took crucial wickets. While Rohit scored runs at a strike rate of 181.25, no other batsman even had 150 SR in the game. In fact, the remaining MI batters collectively scored 63 runs in 72 balls at a poor SR of 87.5. If not for Rohit’s knock, MI would not have reached even 140 let alone getting to the 160-run mark.