Hello and a warm welcome to yet another blog on the daily match reviews of this year’s IPL. I will cover the game between the Mumbai Indians and the Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede. Let’s get started!
Hardik Pandya won the toss and obviously opted to field with Arjun Tendulkar back in the side. LSG lost Padikkal early but again Rahul and Stoinis played a beautiful partnership before Stoinis got out and just as the innings started to crumble with Rahul struggling in one side, Pooran came out all guns blazing and got it back on track. Some cameos from Badoni and Krunal got LSG a superb score of 214. MI were off to the perfect start in their last game with Rohit getting a fifty and Brevis giving him good support, going at a consistent and effective run-rate. But once Brevis was out, in a dramatic turn of events, MI crumbled and were 5 down in no time. Naman Dhir played a blinder to give them some hope but it was out of his reach from about the 18th over, finishing LSG’s season with a win by 18 runs.
In another MI disaster, the bowlers as usual bowled very well for MI but this time Pooran’s blitz gave their batters a stiff target to chase. MI would want first to fix the captaincy debate next season and have a happy transition. Secondly is their batting collapses, some examples being in their losses against CSK, DC, and today as well.
For LSG, they would be shocked that they were relaxing at the 3rd spot for a long time but just one game, one beating, crushed their hopes but they played very well overall in this tournament.
For MI, this has been their worst season so far in the competition as only Bumrah performed consistently and now Rohit’s future is also having a debate, whether he will continue with MI. I feel he will because MI won’t let him go as he has made this franchise what it is today but I feel I have to criticize the use of Rohit as an impact sub because he is the Indian captain and Hardik would have important inputs from him.
The last thing I would criticize is Padikkal’s form this year. Sometimes opened the batting and batted at 3, but he hasn’t gotten even 1 20+ score, which is a huge disappointment as LSG traded Avesh Khan for Padikkal, the former doing wonders in the death for RR. So a dramatic collapse from MI, despite Naman Dhir’s heroics fell short comfortably by 18 runs…