West Indies legend Brian Lara spoke about what Mumbai Indians (MI) lacked in the game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. He said that apart from Jasprit Bumrah, there are no match winners for the franchise in the bowling department.
Mumbai Indians were handed a 20-run rout against the Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2024. The League Classic between the teams went down to the wire, but it is fair to say that it was the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led team who looked for favorites to win right from the start at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium.
Mumbai Indians did not look very good with the ball as they made some mistakes, which were claimed by the Chennai Super Kings batsman. Although Jasprit Bumrah did not take any wicket with the ball, he only gave away 27 runs. Apart from him, others were taken to the cleaners and ended up conceding 206 runs.
With the bat, Rohit Sharma was the lone warrior as he played a magnificent innings of unbeaten 105. He did not get support at the other end as Mumbai Indians finished on 186 runs, losing the game by 20 runs to register their fourth Indian Premier League defeat.
Brian Lara admitted that he backed Mumbai Indians to win the game but did not go easy on the team, saying that they have a poor bowling line-up. He believes there is no one who supports Jasprit Bumrah. Speaking to Star Sports, he explained:
“Not much, I think when we look at Mumbai Indians, a lot of people have them as favourites, simply because they were batting very well, they scored 230 runs, chased 196, they made it look very easy, 15 overs, so I think because of that In fact we choose them as favorites.
“But their bowling is poor. Apart from Jasprit Bumrah, there is no one to really support them in that bowling attack, and the CSK batsmen destroyed them.”
Spinners only bowled 4 overs: Brian Lara on Mumbai Indians’ poor tactics
Brian Lara further lashed out at the Mumbai Indians, saying that they did not trust the spinner to bowl against Shivam Dube. The great batsman stated that they needed to find match winners. He also noted that they failed to accelerate during the intermissions. He elaborated:
“The spinners, they only bowled 4 overs after around 7 runs in a row, but Shivam Dube was not trusted. So, MI will have to improve in that area, they have to find a couple of bowlers, match-winning bowlers.
What tells me the most about this game is that if you have a good bowling unit, like CSK, you look at their bowling, every player played a role in that game, every player. “We had points at that time, we thought Mumbai Indians should accelerate but they didn’t.”
Mumbai Indians will next be seen in action when they take on Punjab Kings on Thursday (April 18). Chennai Super Kings, on the other hand, will take on Lucknow Super Giants next Friday (April 19).