Mumbai Indians (MI) suffered their fourth loss of the season after securing two wins. MI played against their rivals, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), losing the match by 20 runs on April 14 (Sunday). In this encounter, MI's bowlers conceded a total of 206 runs, with each bowler maintaining an economy rate of over eight, except for Jasprit Bumrah, who conceded only 27 runs from his quota of overs. Mohammad Nabi, although effective with 19 runs, bowled only three overs.
West Indies legendary batter Brian Lara assessed MI’s bowling, stating that there were no supporting bowlers alongside Jasprit Bumrah, attributing this as the reason CSK's batters successfully posted a competitive total.
“Their bowling is poor. Beyond Jasprit Bumrah, there is no one to actually support them in that bowling attack, and the CSK batters took them apart”, Lara said on Star Sports.
Lara highlights Mumbai Indians' bowling woes
The former SRH coach further emphasised the disparity between CSK and MI’s bowling, noting that when it was necessary to take wickets, MI didn’t utilise their spinners. Lara also highlighted MI skipper Hardik’s apparent lack of trust in their spinners when Shivam Dube came to bat in the eighth over, suggesting that MI’s bowling unit requires improvement.
"What it tells me more about this game is that, if you’ve got a good bowling unit, like CSK, you look at their bowling, every single bowler played a part in that game, every single bowler. We had dot balls at the time, we thought that Mumbai Indians were supposed to accelerate, they didn’t," Lara said.
“The spinners, they only bowled 4 overs after around 7 runs an over, but they weren’t trusted with Shivam Dube out there. So, MI will have to improve in that area, they’ve got to find a couple of bowlers, match-winning bowlers," he added.
CSK secured their fourth win of the season, their first outside their home ground in Chennai. They posted a total of 206 runs in the first innings, with fifties from skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shivam Dube, along with a late cameo by MS Dhoni. In response, MI's batters were restricted to only 186 runs.
Despite Rohit Sharma scoring an unbeaten century, no other batter provided significant support in the run chase, leading to CSK winning the match by 20 runs. CSK’s sling bowler, Matheesha Pathirana, grabbed four crucial wickets, shifting the game in favour of CSK. Mumbai Indians are set to face the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Lucknow on April 19th.
MORE ON SPORTS TAK:
Cricket fraternity shocked as former Australia star cricketer arrested on over a dozen charges, including stalking, assault, choking and more
Shah Rukh Khan makes a special request to senior players in KKR dressing room after easy win over LSG, says ‘You have a lot of young kids...’
