‘Some Days It'll Come Off, Some Days It Won’t’: Romario Shepherd Reflects on His Explosive Innings Against DC

Mumbai Indians are finally off the mark as they won their first match in IPL 2024 after beating Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede stadium. The home team put up a mammoth total of 234 which the visiting team failed to chase as they fell short by 29 runs.

The scores of MI and DC after 19 overs in their respective innings were almost identical. Mumbai were 202/5 while Delhi reached 201/5 chasing 235. That is where the real point of difference came in – Romario Shepherd.

The Caribbean allrounder was on his debut for Mumbai Indians and pulled off something which no other player would have done on his maiden IPL outing. He smashed 32 runs in the final over of the innings bowled by the experienced Anrich Nortje, ending with 39 runs to his credit off just 10 balls, striking at a rate of 390.

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If that wasn’t enough, he went on to pocket the prized wicket of David Warner, giving early tremors to Delhi in the chase. It was indeed a memorable debut for the cricketer from Guyana who spoke at length about his power hitting in death.

“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 after the match.

“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 clearer mindset than having to be tentative and looking for ones and twos still,” he said.

“You play a bit tentative there and maybe mis-capitalize on some delivery that you would normally hit,” he added.

‘The Finishing Role’

Shepherd talked about a finisher’s role in a T20 game and the pressure it brings.

“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 maximize and try and hit it as well as you can,” Romario said.

“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, you never know it won’t come off,” he added.

Off The Mark

The 29-run win breathed life into the ailing Mumbai camp, bringing them to the winning ways with the first points this season. Shepherd shared the thoughts of the team after the crucial win.

“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 added.

Delhi’s Plan B

Delhi Capitals have a lot to think about after this defeat as they have already lost 4 out of their 5 games this season. Assistant coach Pravin Amre believes that Delhi will have to look at other options now.

“There is room to improve and we would like to improve,” Ambre told the media after the match

“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.

“What are the options, other options we got, which will work, because this has not worked for the last three games. We have to work on what are the other options,” the coach added.

Pravin Amre also shared an update on seamer Mukesh Kumar.

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