‘We Have to Accept Our Flaws’: Hardik Pandya Calls on MI Teammates to Introspect After Fifth Defeat of IPL 2024

Mumbai Indians suffered a 9-1icket thrashing from Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Monday. The losing team’s captain Hardik Pandya said his side did not have a good day with bat, ball or even in the field and were outplayed.

MI skipper appreciated Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera as the duo put on 99 runs from 52 balls for the fifth wicket, but added that MI were around 10-15 runs short.

“We put ourselves in trouble early on. The way Tilak (Verma) and Nehal (Wadhera) batted – that was fantastic. I don’t think that when we lost a couple of wickets early we thought we would even reach 180. We didn’t finish well and that’s why we were 10-15 runs short,” Pandya said after the match.

Mumbai Indians failed to take wickets in the powerplay and neither could they keep the scoring rate down. Piyush Chawla was the pick of the bowlers and the only wicket-taker as well. MI dropped multiple chances in the field which was uncharacteristic of them.

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Jasprit Bumrah bowled well but he too got hit in his final 2 overs. Nuwan Thushara couldn’t impress one debut as the likes of Gerald Coetzee, Mohammad Nabi and Hardik himself didn’t make much of an impact either.

“We had to keep it within the stumps. Early on in the powerplay, we gave a lot of width and I don’t think it was our best day in the field as well. Overall, we did not put the right foot in the park and eventually, they outplayed us,” Pandya said.

MI stayed in the seventh spot after their fifth loss of the season, as their road to the playoffs looks bumpier with every match played. Pandya stressed the need for the players individually and the team as a whole to introspect and rectify.

“After the game, it’s not the right time to go to the players, everyone is professional, they know their roles. What we can do is learn from this game and the mistakes which we have made, rectify it and make sure that we don’t make it. Progression is very important. Within the team, individually, we will have to accept our flaws and maybe work on those. I don’t believe much in chip and chop, I like to back players and the focus would always be to play good cricket, sticking to our plans and making sure that we don’t make the basic errors. Cricket is simple, as long as we keep it simple, it’s nice,” he said.