MI vs RR, IPL 2024: Pressure piles up on Hardik Pandya as Mumbai lose 3 in a row
Pressure piled up on Mumbai captain Hardik Pandya as the 5-time champions lived up to their tag of slow starters and lost the third match in a row in the Indian Premier League on Monday, April 1.
Mumbai were bullied by Rajasthan into submission at the Wankhede Stadium losing their first home game of the season by 6 wickets.
Chasing a small total of 126 runs, Sanju Samson’s side saw off the initial burst from Jasprit Bumrah and calmly chased their target down in 15.3 overs. Hardik Pandya’s team tried their best to drag the game deep, but failed to manage the same due to a mature innings from Riyan Parag. The youngster has been a revelation, after struggling for several years and once again proved his worth by scoring 54* off just 39 balls.
Rajasthan stormed to the top of the IPL 2024 points table, displacing Kolkata from the numero uno position, with their 3rd straight win of the season. On the other hand, Mumbai are rooted to the bottom of the points table. They are the only team without a win so far in the IPL 2024 season.
MI vs RR, IPL 2024: Scorecard
Parag scored boundaries off the poor balls and knocked around the rest against a spirited bowling performance from Bumrah and Gerald Coetzee on the night. Parag remained unbeaten at 54, hitting his second half-century in a row. With the win, Rajasthan went to the top of the table with three wins from three matches in the ongoing edition of the tournament.
PANDYA GETS BOOED AGAIN
The Mumbai captain was hurled abuses at in MI’s first game against Gujarat at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The trend continued in the second game against Hyderabad when Mumbai were hammered by the Pat Cummins side. One would have thought that Hardik would be backed by the crowd in his own stadium, but that was far from the truth.
Hardik got booed by a section of the Wankhede crowd which prompted broadcaster Sanjay Manjrekar to lecture the crowd to ‘behave’ on the night. Loud cheers of ‘Rohit, Rohit’ reverberated even when MI were losing the game against Rajasthan.
NO BOWLING FOR HARDIK PANDYA
The Mumbai captain was heavily criticised for batting too low down the order against Gujarat in the first match, and then was hammered once again for opening with the ball against Hyderabad in a record-shattering game.
Pandya switched up both of those things, first coming into bat early vs Rajasthan and then not bowling a single over in the second innings. The captain tried with the bat but was not able to pull Mumbai out of trouble against some superb bowling from Yuzvendra Chahal and Trent Boult.
RIYAN PARAG, CHAHAL SHINE
It seems to be a season of redemption of both these players, that too right ahead of the T20 World Cup. Parag, who had not been able to make an impact in the previous seasons for Rajasthan seems to be a man on a mission. Parag hit a half-century and snatched away the Orange Cap from Virat Kohli. The batter played a patient innings and saw off the good balls from Mumbai, helping his side win the third game of the season.
The leg spinner on the other hand, picked 2 wickets on the night, which took his tally to 6 wickets from three matches. Chahal, who has been out of the Indian team is once again putting up some top performances with the ball. Chahal, at the moment has an economy of 5.50, much ahead of his compatriots this season. Will he get a look-in for the T20 World Cup squad, only the BCCI knows.
MI vs RR: AS IT HAPPENED
Rajasthan Royals put up a riveting display with the ball in the first innings of the match with Trent Boult and Nandre Burger ripping through the Mumbai top order at the Wankhede Stadium. Boult was impressive in particular, dismissing three Mumbai batters for Golden Ducks on Monday, April 1.
After Boult and Burger had run riot in the powerplay, Yuzvendra Chahal and Avesh Khan dictated terms in the middle overs, absolutely wrecking Mumbai’s chances to win the game. There was a brief partnership of 56 runs in 36 balls, but Chahal managed to get the better of both of them. Rajasthan understood that the job was not done till it was done and kept applying a tremendous amount of pressure on Tim David.
The Australian lower-order batter had a night to forget, failing to hit big shots and scoring only 17 runs off 24 balls on Monday. The sorry state of affairs led Mumbai to put up a 125-run total for the loss of 9 wickets, the lowest by any team so far in the Indian Premier League 2024 season.
That was never going to be enough to beat Rajasthan in a run-fest of a stadium in Wankhede, and MI eventually lost the match by the 16th over.
With the loss, Mumbai became just the second team to lose their home game in the tournament. RCB were the first and only team till today to lose a home game this season.