IPL 2022: MI players celebrate Rohit Sharma's birthday with first win of the season

After eight unsuccessful attempts, the Mumbai Indians finally managed to register their first two points in IPL 2022 with a well-deserved five-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on April 30. While MI might have been knocked out of the tournament, the win was indeed a special one for them since it happened to be skipper Rohit Sharma‘s birthday.

Rohit, who turned 35, had a day to remember as his team gave him the perfect birthday present with a victory over a team that has been one of the most consistent ones this season. Meanwhile, the five-time champions also went on to celebrate Rohit’s birthday after the contest by cutting a cake.

Mumbai Indians celebrate Rohit Sharma’s birthday

In a video posted by the Mumbai Indians on their official social media handles, all the members of the franchise including the likes of head coach Mahela Jayawardene, senior all-rounder Kieron Pollard, and others celebrated the Hitman’s birthday in the team hotel.

Apart from that, they all congratulated each other and celebrated their first victory of the season. During the celebrations, Suryakumar Yadav was seen giving a piece of cake to debutant Kumar Kartikeya for his impressive performance that played a key role in MI’s win.

Watch the video here:

Captain RO cha birthday aur pehle jeet ki khushi 👉 Aaj ka 𝐌𝐈 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 ekdum special hai! 🤩💙#OneFamily #DilKholKe #MumbaiIndians MI TV pic.twitter.com/0WdV6yaiD7

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) May 1, 2022

Kartikeya took the big wicket of RR skipper Sanju Samson and finished with figures of 1/19 from his four overs at an economy rate of 4.8. His economical spell restricted the Royals to just 158/6 despite a quickfire 67 from in-form opener Jos Buttler.

It was a forgettable day for Rohit with the bat as he could only manage two runs to his name but, Suryakumar Yadav (51) and Tilak Varma’s (35) 81-run stand for the third wicket proved to be the turning point of the game and Tim David finished the proceedings in style with an unbeaten 20 as MI came out on top in the final over.