Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya spoke about the loss his team faced in the match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Wankhede Stadium in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. He blamed himself and He admitted that he had to do it. more with the bat.
Things are getting worse for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024. They registered their third consecutive loss of the tournament when Rajasthan Royals defeated them by 6 wickets at their Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday (April 1).
Mumbai Indians showed a torrid outing with the bat as they managed just 125 runs. When asked to bat, they found themselves reeling at 20/4. But captain Hardik Pandya (34) fought back and tried to get his team out of trouble along with Tilak Varma, who scored 32 runs.
Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma added 56 runs together but could not continue as they lost their wickets at the crucial time of the game. The five-time champions could only manage 125 runs on the board. Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal were stars with the ball for Rajasthan Royals.
With the ball, Mumbai Indians kept things tight and picked three quick wickets. But I couldn’t take advantage of that. Riyan Parag played a sensational innings with the bat and scored an unbeaten 54 runs to help his team win by 6 wickets and register their third win of the season.
As a group, we believe we can do much better: Hardik Pandya after Mumbai Indians’ loss to Rajasthan Royals
Hardik Pandya, while talking about the defeat, admitted that it was a difficult night for them as they did not start the way they wanted to. While talking about his innings, he admitted that he tried to counter-attack but his wicket allowed Rajasthan to get back into the game. In statements to the stations, he explained:
“Yes, it was a tough night, we didn’t start the way we wanted to start. “I wanted to fight back, we were in a decent position to get to 150-160, but my wicket allowed them to get back into the game, I needed to do a lot more.”
Hardik Pandya also spoke about the wicket and said that they did not expect the surface to offer so much help to the players. The all-rounder also believes that they can do better as a team as they need to be disciplined and show more courage. He added:
“Okay, we didn’t expect a surface like that, but you can’t always have it as a hitter, sometimes it’s good for the players to have a say. It’s about doing the right things, the (right) results sometimes happen, sometimes they don’t. “As a group we believe we can do much better, but we need to be a little more disciplined and show a lot more courage.”
Mumbai Indians will be next in action when they take on the Delhi Capitals in their next game. The match between the two teams will take place on Sunday (April 7) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. They would be eager to get a win under their belt and get off the mark in IPL 2024.