Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond expressed his disappointment over Mumbai Indians’ bowling unit’s performance against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). MI’s playoff hopes are still uncertain after their loss against LSG on Tuesday.
Shane Bond was devastated after Mumbai Indians (MI) lost their important game against Krunal Pandya–led side in their penultimate match of the league stage. The Rohit Sharma-led side will have to win their final game against Sunrisers Hyderabad and hope for a few results to go in their favour to make it into the last four stages in this edition of the IPL.
Speaking to the media after the close loss against LSG, Shane Bond was not happy with their bowlers for not sticking to the team plans in the bowling and as their pacers and spinners could execute the plan on a given day against a batter Marcus Stoinis in sluggish Lucknow wicket.
“For me, the most frustrating thing is about not sticking to the plans that we talk about. We were very clear with what we wanted to do on this wicket to players like Marcus (Stonis) and where we wanted to bowl, we didn’t bowl there consistently enough,” Shane Bond said.
The former New Zealand pacer revealed that the team planned to bowl on particular areas for a few players to take the ball away from their hitting areas and said that the bowlers gave too many runs bowling to the strength of the Australian all-rounder and believes that innings made the difference between the two sides.
“When you’re looking at a team plan, you’ve got to get the batsmen to hit in areas where you want them to hit. Make it as hard as possible for them. You don’t them to hit you in areas that they want to hit.
“We saw that with Stoinis – a fine player. We knew he was trying to hit straight down the ground and we dished out balls for him to do it. In the end, his innings were the difference between the two teams.
Mumbai Indians pacer Chris Jordan, Cameron Green, and Akash Madhwal could not make an impact with the new ball for the five-time champions as they could not utilize the bowling-friendly conditions in Lucknow especially with Marcus Stoinis dominating the pacers at the end of the innings.
From My Point Of View, It’s Disappointing – Shane Bond
Shane Bond believes the five-time champions have always prided themselves in preparation coming into the match, based on the matchups and tactical moves in the opponent teams and said that it is frustrating to see the players making the same mistake in all the matches.
“We’ve always prided ourselves in our preparation, the work that we do behind the scenes, and how we review the game – the mistakes on which we want to improve. The frustrating thing is that we’re making the same mistake over and over again. From my point of view, it’s disappointing,” Shane Bond added.
Mumbai Indians will look to put the disappointing performance against Lucknow Super Giants behind them and will look to win their final game against Sunrisers Hyderabad to give their best chance to qualify for the playoffs of IPL 2023.