Lack of firepower at the top continued to haunt Mumbai Indians (MI) as they lost to defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) by a massive margin of 55 runs at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on April 25 (Tuesday). After a slow start, MI failed to make a comeback as Afghanistan's spin-bowling duo of Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad did not let them get back on track. As a result, Rohit Sharma's men sustained their fourth defeat of the season while Hardik Pandya's men secured their fifth victory of the ongoing campaign.
MI's bowling attack was taken to the cleaners by GT batters, who as a unit, exploded at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Tuesday. All MI bowlers, except Arjun Tendulkar, conceded runs at an economy rate of more than 8.50. Arjun, who bowled just two overs in the match, both of which came in the powerplay, conceded just nine runs in his spell and picked up the wicket of Wriddhiman Saha.
After the game, MI bowling coach Shane Bond reflected on Arjun's performance after the left-arm seamer had conceded 31 runs in an over in the previous match against Punjab Kings.
"He did well today, obviously after what happened in the last game. It's never easy to step out onto the ground that is a Colosseum with a big crowd. We will work on increasing his pace, but he did all that was asked of him today," MI's official website quoted Shane Bond as saying.
"It's never easy on the back of a bad day. A few of our bowlers had bad days over the last few games. And that's the thing with T20 cricket, where you got to have thick skin in a short memory and must come out. We must execute all our plans to find ourselves in the playoffs at the back end of the tournament. We just have to be better at what we do," he added.
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