IPL 2024: After suffering an 18-run defeat against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya admitted that his team did not deliver good quality cricket on Friday.
Hardik himself scored 16 runs from 13 balls with a strike rate of 123.08 while chasing the 215-run target set by LSG. Speaking post-match, Pandya expressed disappointment, acknowledging that their subpar performance throughout the IPL 2024 season cost them dearly. He added that it’s premature to pinpoint the exact reasons for their underwhelming performance.
“Quite difficult. Did not play good quality cricket, eventually costed us the whole season. It’s a professional world. Have to always come out and put our best foot forward. But yes, as a group we could not play quality cricket or smart cricket. Too early to point out what went wrong. The whole season kind of went wrong. We can pass this game as another one (that went wrong),” Pandya said.
Recapping the match, after winning the toss, MI opted to field first, but LSG capitalized on their batting innings with KL Rahul scoring 55 runs from 41 balls and Nicholas Pooran blasting 75 runs from 29 balls. Despite Piyush Chawla’s three-wicket haul, LSG managed to post a challenging total of 214/6.
In the run chase, MI had a promising start with Rohit Sharma and Dewald Brevis’s partnership of 88 runs. Naman Dhir’s unbeaten 62 runs from 28 balls injected hope into the MI dugout, but ultimately they fell short by 18 runs.
Naveen-ul-Haq and Ravi Bishnoi led the LSG bowling attack, both picking up two wickets each. With this win, LSG concluded their IPL 2024 campaign in sixth place with 14 points, while MI’s forgettable season saw them finish at the bottom of the table with 8 points.