Mumbai Indians are in danger of finishing at the bottom of the point table for the first time in their history. Rohit Sharma’s men have lost 9 out of their first 11 matches in the ongoing season.
Mumbai Indians’ 2-match winning streak came to a grinding halt on Monday, May 9, as the 2-time champions were beaten by 52 runs by Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 56 of IPL 2022 at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. A horror batting performance let down the 5-time champions as they fell well short of a 166-run target.
Mumbai’s campaign went from bad to worse as they have lost nine matches in a season for the first time in the 15-year history of the tournament. Mumbai had lost eight games under Sachin Tendulkar in 2009 and 8 in 2014 and 2018 under Rohit’s captaincy.
It was expected that MI would carry the winning momentum and put one across a KKR side that had been clueless about its combination until Monday. Despite Jasprit Bumrah picking up a 5-wicket haul in his best-ever T20 performance, MI were handed another defeat.
Jasprit Bumrah bowled one of the finest spells you would have ever seen in the IPL at the DY Patil Stadium on Monday night, but it wasn’t enough to lift Mumbai Indians from the mediocrity that they have slipped into in IPL 2022. After Bumrah’s devastating 5/10 in four overs of high-class pace bowling restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 165 for nine in 20 overs, the two-time champions came roaring back into the contest as Pat Cummins (3/22), Andre Russell (2/22), and Tim Southee (1/10) returned fire with fire to ensure a 52-run win which keeps their team alive in the race for the playoffs.
With 10 points – five wins and seven losses – the Knight Riders climbed from the ninth to the seventh spot with two games to go.
Fielding like tigers, KKR pulled off three runouts as MI suffered their ninth loss in an embarrassing season. Bowling like a raging tornado, Bumrah, after taking just five wickets in 10 matches in IPL 15, tore into the Knight Riders to record his best-ever figures in T20 cricket, even as his effort went in vain.
“We would take that total any day on that kind of a pitch. To see how things unfolded in the second half of the innings for us was a great effort from the bowling unit. Bumrah was special today. But I’m disappointed with the way we batted. I thought it was a par score on that pitch, but it was a little poor from the bat from us. We’re playing our fourth game here, so we know what to expect from a pitch like that. There were a few balls that took off, but that happens. We know seam bowlers will get help, but we didn’t bat well, didn’t get partnerships, and that was something missing from our side today. – Mumbai’s Captain Rohit Sharma said after the game.
