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Rohit Sharma was obliged to play as an Impact Player in Friday’s Mumbai Indians vs. Kolkata Knight Riders game due to a “mild back stiffness”.
On a two-paced Wankhede pitch, MI was unable to reach the target of 170 runs, despite Rohit scoring 11 off 12 balls. Their chances of making the playoffs are in shambles as they are in ninth place after their eighth loss in their last 11 games.
“He just had a mild back stiffness so it was just a precautionary thing,” Piyush Chawla said at the post-match press conference.
Upon being asked what’s left for MI to play for, Chawla was candid.
“For the pride and the reputation,” he said, “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. You have to play for your name and that’s what we are playing for.”
For Chawla, the silver lining during the match was becoming the second-highest wicket-taker in the IPL, going went past Dwayne Bravo’s tally of 183.
Chawla got there by having Rinku Singh caught and bowled with his first ball of the match. Reflecting on his record, Chawla said: “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 from India are all the spinners, [R] Ashwin, Yuzi [Yuzvendra Chahal], myself, so it’s a good feeling.”