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Their 24-run defeat against KKR, in which Rohit was an impact substitute, saw him score just 11 runs in 12 balls in the second innings. This loss almost saw the five-time winners eliminated from the IPL this year.
“He just had a mild back stiffness so it was just a precautionary thing,” Chawla told the media after the match here at the Wankhede Stadium.
Mumbai’s eighth loss in 11 games has put an end to the Hardik Pandya-led team, and Chawla also acknowledged that their only remaining motivation is “pride”.
“For the pride and the reputation, because sometimes when you enter on the field, you don’t think whether you are going to qualify or you are not going to qualify,” he said.
“You have to play for your name and that’s what we are playing for,” he added.
MI’s lack of momentum throughout this IPL season, according to Chawla, is the cause of their subpar play.
“You must have often heard about that T20 is all about momentum and just that we didn’t get that momentum going this season and it can happen to any team,” he said.
“It’s not like it’s happening to us for the first time or any other team for the second time. It can happen to anyone and it’s just that that momentum was not our way.”
On Friday, the 35-year-old Chawla overtook Dwayne Bravo to claim 184 wickets, becoming him the second-highest wicket-taker in the IPL.
“It has been a beautiful journey because IPL started 17 years back and at that time nobody gave that much preference to the spinners, but now if you see that in top few wicket takers in India, especially all the spinners, Ashwin, Yuzhi, myself (are there), so it’s a good feeling,” he said.
In addition, Chawla commended Manish Pandey for his performance in his first game of the season despite being under pressure. As KKR scored 169 all out in 19.5 overs, Pandey (42) and Venkatesh Iyer (70) shared 83 runs for the sixth wicket.
“It was a good partnership and credit has to go to them because they batted beautifully. Well, T20 is something in which experience plays a big role, (which is) what we saw today.
“When Manish walked in, maybe if somebody walks in who must have played few games, he would have panicked that runs are not coming.
“But he read the situation and the way he handled the situation because if you see in starting, he was hardly going at run a ball. But later on, he knew that he has to stand there with Venky.”
(With PTI inputs)