Five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) are having worst of the times in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and it's still a bitter pill to swallow for many of their fans. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) piled another misery on MI on Thursday with a three-wicket victory in a stunner of a match.
Meanwhile, MI's team mentor Sachin Tendulkar suggested the struggling side to go out and win the crunch moments to arrest their slide. He also termed T20 a cruel format where small margins are crucial.
"Let's first understand that in this format there isn't a team who has not experienced what Mumbai Indians have experienced this season," Tendulkar told Matthew Hayden during a chat on 'Star Sports'.
"This format can be cruel. And those crucial moments in a match which don't go in your favour then literally the margin is like… you lose a game by two or three runs or sometimes even the last ball.
The great MS Dhoni turned back the clock to clinch the issue for CSK against MI, following a heart-stopping finish that saw him hit a four off the last ball of the game.
Dhoni (28 not out off 13) batted like the finisher of his hey days to help CSK get the required 17 runs off the final over to win their second game of the season and extend MI winless streak this season to seven games. He smashed a six and four off third and fourth ball off Jaydev Unadkat before maintaining his calm to put one past short-fine leg for the match-winning boundary, leaving the bowler and the rest of his Mumbai teammates shattered.
"And those smaller margins, we need to go out and conquer those moments, those crunch moments in the match are what we have to win. And they haven't gone our way," he said.
The cricket icon said the players especially the youngsters will take some time to settle in.
"I would like to clarify one more point: in spite of having had a challenging season the boys have gone out and worked as hard as possibly they could during their practice sessions.
"This is a new team, a young team. It may take a little more time to settle down, but these phases are such where you have to ride through these phases, stick together as a team and find the solution."
