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It has been just two matches since Hardik Pandya took over Mumbai Indians (MI) from Rohit Sharma. After Harbhajan Singh, Pandya is the second MI captain to lose his first two matches. At the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, MI’s tactics were all over the place against a free-flowing SRH batting lineup that broke the record for the highest score in the league’s history. MI were alive in the run chase but Pandya’s knock was underwhelming and led to a 31-run loss. After the match, former skipper Rohit was seen having an animated conversation with team owner Akash Ambani in the team’s dugout.
Earlier, when all hell broke loose, Rohit was seen setting the field. He even sent Hardik in the outfield. He helped the visitors get off to an ideal start in the mammoth run chase. However, his knock came to an end in the fifth over when SRH skipper Pat Cummins got rid of him with a short ball. He scored 26 runs from 12 balls.
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Hardik made another blunder in the game against SRH. He opened the bowling himself and gave just one over to Jasprit Bumrah in the powerplay overs. When SRH bowlers were going hammer and tongs, he did not give Bumrah the ball to get a breakthrough until it was too late.
Pandya defends bowlers
After the match, while talking to the broadcasters, Hardik did not criticise his bowlers for a horror show but instead backed them.
“Wicket was good, 277 no matter how bad or good you bowl, if the opposition has to score that much, they have batted well. They (the bowlers) were good, it was tough out there, almost 500 runs were scored and the wicket was helping the batters, we could have done a few things here and there, but having said that, we have a young bowling attack and we will learn,” he told the broadcasters.
He went on to call debutant Kwena Maphaka’s bowling display fantastic. Maphaka conceded a record-breaking 66 runs from his quota of four overs.
“He was fantastic, coming into his first game and getting overwhelmed, he was alright and backed his skillset, just needs some game time,” the 30-year-old added.
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