Eliminated from the IPL 2022 trophy race
with eight straight losses, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma apologised to
fans for his team’s lacklustre performance and said that “many sporting
giants have gone through this phase.”

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With one defeat away from getting
knocked out of the playoff race, Mumbai Indians suffered a crushing 36 runs
defeat to Lucknow Super Giants Sunday.

“We haven’t put our best foot
forward in this tournament but that happens, many sporting giants have gone
through this phase but I love this team and it’s environment”, he wrote from his Twitter handle.

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“Also want to appreciate our well
wishers who’ve shown faith and undying loyalty to this team so far
@mipaltan”, he further added.

Rohit’s tweet which came a day after the
defeat went well among the fans, with many lending their support to the
captain.

With captain Lucknow captain KL Rahul smashing
an unbeaten century, registering 103 runs off 62 balls, Mumbai Indians chasing
a 169 runs target were restricted to 132 for 8. Rohit Sharma top-scored for his
team with 39, while Tilak Varma scored 38.

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Five-time IPL champions MI are now at
the bottom of the 10-team points table with no points in their kitty.
Meanwhile, Lucknow are fourth in the standings with 10 points from eight games,
including five wins and three defeats.

“We haven’t batted well enough in this
tournament. Whoever plays in the middle needs to take that responsibility and
go on to play long innings. Some of the opposition players have done that and
that is what is hurting us. One guy needs to ensure that he bats as long as
possible,” Rohit said after the match.

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Rohit feels that in the manner in which
they are losing games, everyone in the bench is in contention.

“Everyone has come into discussion given
how our tournament has gone. We need to ensure that we have a settled team and
give players in the middle a fair chance,” he said when asked if there is a
chance for Tim David to come into the equation.