Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Mumbai: It was a night when nothing went right for Mumbai Indians as they succumbed to 20-run defeat at the hands of Rising Pune Supergiant in Qualifier 1 of the 2017 IPL at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday, despite a half century from Parthiv Patel.
Mumbai Indians were in control till the 18th over but then all hell broke lose. Their most dependable bowlers -- Mitchell McClenaghan and Jasprit Bumrah -- conceded 41 runs in last two overs as MS Dhoni hit four sixes in space of nine balls to wrest control from Mumbai Indians.
On a wicket that was on the slower side, Mumbai were expected to chase down Pune's 162 with ease but first they lost Lendl Simmons, who was run out, and then Rohit Sharma was wrongly adjudged LBW as replayed suggested their was an inside edge.
It turned into a nightmare as the batsman that followed played reckless shots to seal Mumbai fate.
Parthiv Patel, who waged a lone battle with a 40-ball 52, admitted they lost too many wickets in quick succession as a result of which they lost the momentum.
"This was probably a par score. I thought we lost too many wickets after six overs," said Parthiv.
But he refused to blame the runs they conceded in the last two over which resulted in a momentum shift.
"This kind of things can happen in this format when someone like Dhoni is batting. Obviously we were in control but I won't say because of those two overs we lost the game."
He defended team management decision to bench Harbhajan Singh and field leg-spinner Karn Sharma and left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya -- both of whom had a decent outing.
"You can look at it in both ways but looking at all the right-handers (in the opposition camp) team management took the decision of going with two bowlers who will take balls away from the batsman," reasoned the wicketkeeper-batsman.
Mumbai will have another opportunity to make it the the final by winning the Qualifier 2 in May 19 where they will face the winners of Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders.
