Despite losing IPL 2021's first match to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma praised his team's effort for fighting till the end but said that they made some mistakes while batting and were 20 runs short.

RCB beat MI by two wickets off the last ball of the match to win the tournament opener. MI had posted 159/9 which was below par.

"I thought it was a great effort. Great fight till the end. I thought we were 20 runs short with the kind of start we got. We made some mistakes in the first game, bound to happen," said Sharma after the match and added that it is important to win tournaments and not the first game.

"In hindsight, you can say it takes time to get intensity. But there are fresh faces. Lot of players were playing international cricket and we have not had time to get to know each other very well," he added.

On playing at neutral venues, Sharma said, "It can be difficult for teams who have great home record but that's the challenge of the sport."