Piyush Chawla says it was a precautionary measure
Rohit Sharma made 11 off 12 as the Impact Player in MI’s chase  •  AFP/Getty Images
A “mild back stiffness” forced Rohit Sharma to play as Impact Player in Mumbai Indians’ match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday.
“He just had a mild back stiffness so it was just a precautionary thing,” Piyush Chawla said at the post-match press conference.
Rohit made 11 off 12 balls as MI failed to chase down a target of 170 on a two-paced Wankhede pitch. It was their eighth defeat in 11 games, leaving them languishing in ninth position and their playoffs chances hanging by a thread. 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.”
