Hardik Pandya’s Mumbai Indians (MI) locked horns with Sanju Samson’s Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the 38th match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Monday, April 22 .
When the coin was tossed, the coin fell in Hardik Pandya’s favor and Mumbai Indians (MI) came into the game first. The five-time champions lost the top order for 20 runs but Tilak Varma (65) and Nehal Wadhera (49) ensured MI posted a decent total of 179 for 9 with their 99-run partnership.
While defending the total, the MI bowlers failed to make an early breakthrough and RR were 61/0 after the powerplay. They managed to dismiss Jos Buttler for 35 but Yashasvi Jaiswal remained unbeaten and hit a sensational 104 runs to guide RR to a 9-wicket win along with Sanju Samson (38).
After the game, Hardik Pandya expressed his disappointment over the failure of the top order but was pleased with the way Tilak and Nehal stepped up. Hardik Pandya said:
“We got ourselves into trouble early on. The way Tilak and Nehal fought – that was fantastic. I don’t think when we lost a few wickets early on we thought we would even reach 180. That’s why we were 10-15 runs short.”
Hardik Pandya also criticized the Jasprit Bumrah-led bowling attack for not bowling stump-to-stump lines and giving width to the players. Mumbai Indians also had a terrible day on the field as they dropped a lot of catches, which infuriated Hardik Pandya. Hardik Pandya further said:
“We had to keep it inside the stumps (while bowling). We gave a lot of width at the start of the power play and I don’t think it was our best day on the field. Overall, we didn’t manage to do that with our right foot and in the end they outplayed us.
Hardik Pandya added that they need to learn from their mistakes and work on their mistakes to bounce back strong. Hardik Pandya explained:
“After the game it is not the right time to go to the players, everyone is professionals, they know their roles. What we can do is learn from this game and the mistakes we made, correct it and make sure we do it. “We don’t have to repeat it. Within the team we have to work individually on our mistakes. I like supporting players and the focus is always on playing good cricket. Cricket is simple, as long as we keep it simple it’s nice.”
Mumbai Indians’ current position in the IPL 2024 standings and their previous match result
Before the clash against the inaugural champions – Rajasthan Royals (RR) – the Hardik Pandya-led team was at the seventh position in the points table with three wins and six points. After the game between RR and MI, they have now remained in the same position.
Talking about their previous match result, Mumbai Indians (MI) won an absolute nail-biter against Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 9 runs on April 18 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur.
With the first bat, MI managed to reach the score of 192 for 7 as Suryakumar Yadav hit a great half-century and Rohit Sharma along with Tilak Varma gave him the much-needed support.
In defending the target, Jasprit Bumrah (3/21) was in a class of his own but didn’t get much support from the others as Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma took the bowlers to the cleaners. Finally, the game went to the final and PBKS was bowled out for 183 to hand the victory to Hardik Pandya & Co.