The Mumbai Indians, five-time winners, are well out of the running for the IPL 2024 playoffs. Hardik Pandya and company, who are having one of the worst seasons in IPL history, lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by 24 runs on Friday at their home venue, Wankhede Stadium, suffering their eighth defeat in 11 games.
Once again, the loss highlighted Hardik’s captaincy. It was MI’s first versus KKR at the Wankhede in 12 years.
“On paper, this was such a strong squad, but it was poorly managed. In a video posted to social media, former India bowler Irfan Pathan analysed the match and remarked, “The questions being raised about Hardik Pandya’s captaincy were absolutely correct.”
Despite MI having the visitors at 57/5 in just the seventh over, KKR managed to score 169 due to half-centuries of 70 off 52 balls from Venkatesh Iyer and an equally important 42 off 31 balls from Manish Pandey.
“There was no need to give Naman Dhir three consecutive overs after KKR had taken five wickets for just 57 runs. Your sixth bowler delivered three overs when you ought to have been using your principal bowlers. This made it possible for Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey to form a joint venture.Pathan continued, casting doubt on skipper Hardik’s choices on the field. “Where you could have bowled KKR out for 150, they went on to make 170, and that turned out to be the difference,” he said.
Mumbai Indians Again Failed
Suryakumar Yadav scored a fifty-six-ball fifty-six, but Mumbai collapsed for 145 in 18.5 overs, thanks to match-winning numbers of 4/33 from Mitchell Starc, the most expensive player in IPL history. Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and Varun Chakravarthy each claimed two wickets.
“With Mitchell Starc’s comeback to form, KCR appears to be a ‘khatarnak’ (dangerous) squad. Mitchell Starc’s bowling was their lone weak point in terms of rapid bowling. “One must acknowledge the manner in which he bowled to Tim David,” Irfan said.
With seven victories in ten games, the victory moved KKR up to No. 2 in the standings.
Returning to the topic of MI captaincy, which was transferred from Rohit Sharma to Hardik before to the commencement of the current campaign, Irfan stated that MI is not performing cohesively under Hardik’s leadership.
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