Mumbai Indians ended a long wait to secure their first win in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday when they beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by 49 runs. Rohit Sharma, the MI captain, played an important innings of 80 runs in 54 deliveries, as he returned to run-scoring after a poor outing in the opening game.
However, Rohit insisted that playing in hot and humid conditions of the UAE "takes a lot out of you." His opinion was shared by fellow teammate Trent Boult and KKR captain Dinesh Karthik.
"It is not easy to play long innings here. It takes a lot out of you to play in these conditions. Maybe I was a bit tired in the end and it was a lesson for us that one set batsmen needs to bat deep till the end," Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
"We've seen it in the past and that's what I tried to do."
During his stay in the middle, he played the pull shots to perfection and hit a couple of sixes.
"I back myself to play the pull shots and have practised quite a bit. Pretty happy with the performance of my squad. All my shots were good (laughs), can't pick one," he said.
Besides Rahul Chahar, Mumbai Indians don't have a frontline spinner in their roster and Rohit said that the squad was made keeping in mind the pitches at the Wankhede Stadium.
"We never knew that the IPL would happen in the UAE so we wanted a pace attack that was strong for the Wankhede. But the ball was seaming around for the first six overs over here as well," said the MI captain.
"We haven't played much with Trent Boult and (James) Pattinson, but it was good that we were on the same page."
The result meant MI ended their winless streak in the UAE.
"Only two players from the squad that lost five matches here in 2014. It is all about executing plans, which we did," Rohit said.
"We were always ahead of the game, but it was all about being ruthless."
KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik said, "Pretty rusty day to be honest. Don't want to be too analytical about it. The boys know where they need to get better. Pat Cummins and Morgan just finished their quarantine today. So it is not easy to come in and play in this heat."
While Boult also said he was not comfortable playing in these conditions.
"I wouldn't say I'm comfortable in these heat and conditions. It's a big challenge to bowl against the likes of Morgan and Russell but it's nice to come out on the winning side tonight.
"I have been bowling back in New Zealand and it's the winter there, that's been the biggest challenge but everyone is excited to have cricket around," he said.
