"Chennai and Mumbai look good at the bottom of the table" - Virender Sehwag after MI's fifth consecutive loss in IPL 2022
Former Indian batter Virender Sehwag believes the tide is turning in the Indian Premier League (IPL) following the Mumbai Indians' fifth loss in a row. The five-time champions are still in search of their first win of the tournament this season.
Heavyweights Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, who share nine trophies between them, currently occupy the bottom two spots in the IPL points table. Meanwhile, the likes of Rajasthan Royals and the new franchises are comfortably placed at the top.
Playing their third consecutive match at the MCA Stadium in Pune, MI suffered a 12-run loss against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Wednesday. As a result, they remain the only IPL team in the league without a single win against their name this season.
bit.ly/TATAIPL-2022-23Punjab Kings return to winning ways! 👏 👏
The Mayank Agarwal-led unit register their third win of the #TATAIPL 2022 as they beat Mumbai Indians by 12 runs. 👍 👍
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Chasing 199, MI took the match deep with Suryakumar Yadav their only hope left at the crease. However, he perished to a full toss off Kagiso Rabada in the penultimate over itself. Feeling that Yadav might have been unaware of who would be bowling the final over of the innings, Sehwag said on Cricbuzz:
"I said it before itself, let the rich teams stay at the bottom, Chennai and Mumbai, they look good at the bottom of the table. It is difficult to win after two such runouts. I don't think that Suryakumar Yadav knew that the final over will be bowled by either Odean Smith or Liam Livingstone. Had he known that, as much as 25 runs could have been kept in the bank for the final over."
Odean Smith then had an easier task bowling to the tailenders and defended the target for his side. He took three wickets in the last over.
Parthiv Patel also agreed that Yadav could have calculated the final portion of the chase a little bit better. The former wicket-keeper said:
"Suryakumar Yadav could have calculated better. He is playing all the shots, looks in control, and gives that versatility to the team by batting at any position. The execution is really good, he would hope that he gets more balls to face ahead."
Yadav was left as the last recognized batter at the crease following the run-outs of Tilak Varma and Kieron Pollard. The 31-year-old scored 43 off 30 deliveries to continue his good run of form.
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"I thought the MI chase was going well till the 15th over in fact" - Parthiv Patel
Chasing 199 for victory, the chasing side navigated through the early trouble. They were arguably in pole position at one point following a stellar partnership between youngsters Tilak Varma (36) and Dewald Brewis (49).
A hard fought battle, but we just fell short.
#OneFamily #DilKholKe #MumbaiIndians #MIvPBKS https://t.co/OGMIMdOetO
Opining that MI were in the chase ahead of the death overs, Patel said:
"I thought the chase was going well till the 15th over in fact. When you are chasing a big total, one of the top three or four has to play well. Has to remain out there till the 17th or 18th over. In this case, everyone got out after settling down. There needs to be an experienced player at the end to finish the game and in crunch situations, it was well set up by Brewis and Varma."
According to the IPL 2022 schedule, the struggling franchise will next take on the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 16 (Saturday) at the Brabourne Stadium.