On Monday, after Sandeep Sharma’s first-ever IPL five-for, stylish opener Yashasvi Jaiswal stormed back to form with a blistering century as a rampaging Rajasthan Royals crushed Mumbai Indians by nine wickets at home.
In Rajasthan’s final home game at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaiswal finally rediscovered form, destroying the Mumbai Indians attack with his 104 not out off 60 balls after Sandeep returned with the greatest bowling stats of 2017 IPL, 4-0-18-5.
While the Royals secured their first-ever victory, Hardik Pandya and the Mumbai Indians suffered their sixth loss of the year.
The under-pressure MI captain acknowledged that the opponents had outplayed him, but he declined to discuss the defeat right away.
“We got into problems really quickly. We were 10-15 runs short since we didn’t finish properly despite Tilak and Nehal’s excellent batting. We have to keep it within the stumps when bowling. We offered a lot of width early on the powerplay, and I don’t believe we had the finest day on the field overall. In the end, they outplayed us because we did not play well overall, Hardik stated during the post-game press conference.
“Going to the players after the game is not appropriate; they are all professionals and understand their jobs. What we can do, according to Hardik, is take what we’ve learned from the game and our mistakes, make the necessary corrections, and make sure we don’t repeat the same ones.
“Moving forward is crucial. Individually and as a team, we must own our shortcomings and perhaps address them,” Hardik remarked after MI failed to make at least three catches in the match against Rajasthan.
This season, Hardik has had difficulties after taking over as captain from the seasoned Rohit Sharma, only to face jeers from the crowd at every game.
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