The IPL team Mumbai Indians is a five times champion team but in the ongoing IPL 2024, it is going through a very tough phase as it is sitting at the ninth position in the point table with 8 defeats in 11 matches.
The chances of MI playing in the play-offs are over now and it can just save some respect by winning the remaining matches but the big question is what went wrong with this team which looks a strong unit on paper.
MI suffered their 8th defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders in a match which was played yesterday at MI’s home ground, Wankhede stadium, Mumbai. The toss was won by MI and it decided to bowl first, it was a quite good decision by MI as they had dismissed 5 top order batters of KKR at the score of 57 but then Venkatesh Iyer (70 runs, 52 balls, 6 fours & 3 fours) and Manish Pandey (42 runs, 31 balls, 2 fours & 2 sixes) stitched a partnership of 83 runs. KKR managed to put a total of 169 runs on the score board in 19.5 overs and a target of 170 was not a tough one for the strong batting line up of MI but the batting lineup of MI fumbled up badly and they could score only 145 runs in 18.5 overs. The highest scorer for MI was Suryakumar Yadav who played a knock of 56 runs for which he faced 35 balls and his innings included 6 fours & 2 sixes.
KKR batter Venktesh Iyer was adjudged as the Player of the Match for his superb innings and during the post-match presentation, Hardik Pandya was full of praises for his bowlers but he was quite critical of his batters. He said that they could not build partnerships and kept losing wickets, adding that if a team doesn’t build partnerships in T20Is then it will certainly face problem.
When he is asked whether he has anything to say on the defeat, he says that there are many questions which will take time to answer but as of now, he doesn’t have much to say. He praised the bowlers and said that the bowlers did a fantastic job and they would surely go through the game and try to understand what they could have done better.
Pandya said that he keeps telling himself that you have to keep fighting, never leave the battle field, if tough days are there, then good days will also come, though it is challenging yet challenges will make us better.
What went wrong for MI in the IPL 2024 in your opinion? Share your views with us.