NEW DELHI: As Mumbai Indians succumbed to their seventh defeat of the season, this time against Lucknow Super Giants, skipper
Hardik Pandya
said loss of early wickets led to their down fall at the Ekana.
After being put in to bat by KL Rahul, MI found themselves tottering at 28 for four after powerplay with pacers Mohsin Khan, Marcus Stoinis and Naveen-ul-Haq doing the early damage.
Rohit Sharma
(4),
Suryakumar Yadav
(10), Tilak Varma (7) and Hardik (0) all fell cheaply as Ishan Kishan (32) and Nehal Wadhera (46) and
Tim David
(35) somehow took them to a par total.
Hardik said loss of wickets in a cluster in powerplay hurt them badly and they were never able to fully recover from that.
"Definitely, losing early wickets in the powerplay is tough to recover from. Where we needed the most, we could not do well," Hardik said in the post-match presentation.
On being asked if high scores this season have put more pressure on the batters early, Hardik said, "Not really, you still have to see the ball and hit. The wicket was good. The ball was there to be hit and we just missed, that sort of season for us so far. I have always believed that whenever you take to the field, sometimes you will be down, sometimes you will be up, and you have to fight. It looks difficult but there are a lot of things you can learn from this game."
Amid MI's freefall against LSG, Wadhera stood out, notching up a solid 41-ball 46 and Hardik was quick in praising the responsible effort from the youngster.
"He has been fantastic, the way he batted against Rajasthan and tonight. He did fantastic last year as well. It was because of the team combination that he could not play early. Looking at his talent, he will play for a lot of years for Mumbai and for India eventually," Hardik added.
With 7 losses in 10 matches, MI are at the ninth spot. A victory on the other hand, lifted Lucknow to third spot.
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