‘Clear mind, no-holds-barred approach’ key for MI hero Romario Shepherd

Mumbai: A clear mind and a no-holds-barred approach at death overs hold key for Mumbai Indians’ Romario Shepherd, who powered the five-time IPL champions to a 29-run win over Delhi Capitals in their IPL match here on Sunday.

The burly Guyanese all-rounder turned on the beast mode to hammer four sixes and two fours in the final over off South African pacer Anrich Nortje to collect 32 runs, finishing with an unbeaten 39 off just 10 balls.

Courtesy Shepherd’s blitz, Mumbai notched up their highest score at the Wankhede Stadium and also went on to record their first win of this IPL season.

“Everyone wants to bat a bit and before they start hitting, get used to the condition a bit. But whenever you're in the 17th over, you just go with a clear mind because there is no holding back,” Shepherd told the media here after the match.

Shepherd said batting with single-mindedness can bring success.

“Whenever you're in that kind of role you're even more dangerous, having to just hit the ball because when you ‘see-ball hit-ball’, it's a more clear mindset than having to be tentative and looking for ones and twos,” he said.

“You play a bit tentative there and may be mis-capitalise on some delivery that you would normally hit.

“But when you're in the back end and there's only 18 balls, you will only face about seven, eight or nine out of those balls. You have to maximise and hit it as well as you can,” he added.

The Caribbean player said such an approach could also misfire but that is the nature of the role of being a finisher.

“Especially in the finishing role, there's a lot of pressure on us because everyone expects us to just go in there and blast sixes. Some days it will come off, some days it won't. Like today it came off, on the next day, it won't come off,” he added.

Shepherd said Mumbai were under severe pressure after three defeats in a row and ‘all hands on the deck’ were working to turn around the fortunes.

“It's a fantastic feeling coming off the mark because three games, three defeats was kind of getting to us. We are a big team and big expectations (are) from us. We did not want to go four down,” he said.

“This game was a game that (had) all hands on deck trying to push forward for the win. We didn't have a particular target in mind because when you set targets, sometimes you go way off and you maybe go less than what is required in the day,” he added.

“When Ro (Rohit Sharma) got out, (the) coach asked him what was the total and he thought anything over 200 was good because that was a good wicket,” Shepherd said.

Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals’ assistant coach Pravin Amre defended his side saying they have been struggling with injuries to a few key players, and said there could be changes to personnel and approach.

“In this format, it’s always those five overs that are critical. Yes, we have to give credit to Shepherd the way he batted, getting 32 runs in the last over and that too against a world-class bowler. It was his day, the way he batted, it was unbelievable,” Amre said during his post-match press conference.

Amre said India bowler Mukesh Kumar is expected to be available from the next game, which would help Delhi address the death over woes as Nortje has consistently leaked runs.

“There is room to improve. We have to work on our bowling, our bowling department has to fire and then only we can win back-to-back games,” he said.

“We have to work on other options because this has not worked for us for the last three games.”

“Unfortunately, Mukesh was also not fit for this particular game. I'm hopeful he will be fit for the next game and he can come and bowl at death,” he added.