Mumbai Indians (MI) suffered their third consecutive defeat in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. The Hardik Pandya-led MI lost by six wickets to Rajasthan Royals (RR) as the visitors chased down a below par target with 4.3 overs to spare. During the game, skipper Pandya faced the brunt of the crowd at the Wankhede Stadium who are still not over the all-rounder replacing Rohit Sharma as captain. However, Rohit urged the crowd to put a stop to boos while fielding in the second innings.
Rohit was fielding on the boundary when the crowd was booing Hardik. The ‘Hitman’ gestured at the crowd to stop it. The video has gone viral on social media.
Earlier, Rohit and Hardik were seen engaging in an animated chat after the defeats against Gujarat Titans (GT) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Hardik has been under fire for his decisions which have contributed to MI’s three consecutive defeats.
Hardik on MI’s loss
“Yes, a tough night, we didn't start the way we wanted to start. I wanted to counter, we were in a decent position to get us around 150-160, but my wicket allowed them to get back more into the game, I needed to do a lot more,” Hardik told the broadcasters after MI’s first home defeat.
While he admitted that he did not expect the pitch to behave this way, the 30-year-old urged his teammates to take more responsibility and play with courage.
“It's okay, we didn't expect such a surface, but you can't always have it as a batter, it's nice at times for the bowlers to have a say. It's all about doing the right things, (correct) results happen at times, at some other times it doesn't. As a group, we believe we can do a lot better, but we need to be a bit more disciplined and show a lot more courage,” he added.
Hardik was impressive with the bat for a brief period of time. He walked in to bat at no.6 when MI were 20/4 in the fourth over. He was the top-scorer for MI with 34 runs from 21 balls. However, he did bowl a single over.
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