Shane Bond reckoned the Mumbai Indians team has a lot of work to do in the upcoming two matches if they are to qualify for the playoffs and defend their title. MI lost to Delhi Capitals (DC) on Saturday, and they are now languishing in seventh place with 10 points from 12 matches.
Defending champions Mumbai Indians are currently in the bottom half of the IPL points table after seven losses from 12 matches. However, their bowling coach Shane Bond on Saturday said they are “still in the competition”.
Shane Bond: Mumbai Indians Still In The Competition
The five-time defending champions could only manage a modest 129/8, which Delhi Capitals chased down for a four-wicket win. They next face Rajasthan Royals at the same venue in three days.
“We are playing okay, we know that we are playing nowhere near our best, but we are still in the competition,” Bond said.
“We’ll see what happens. We only had fine wins, but if we can get two wins under our belt and a few results go our way,” he said.
“I don’t think the plan will change too much. We’ve got a couple of areas we need to tidy up. We know we’re still in the competition, even though we lost today.”
Sent in to bat, Mumbai Indians struggled in the middle overs, managing just 21 runs with the loss of three wickets in five overs.
“We thought if we got a score around 145 it would probably be a winning total which probably proved to be right. Look, the bowlers gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game, but I think Delhi played well in the middle, they took some chances and we knew that it was going to get tougher.”
Shane Bond praised Suryakumar Yadav, who looked to have regained his touch with a 26-ball 33 before being dismissed by Axar Patel.
“He (Surya) just played how he normally he plays. He’s hitting the ball beautifully in training. He was getting that fluency and looked like the way he played last season. it’s just unfortunate that he’s getting out.”
Shane Bond was also optimistic about Suryakumar Yadav getting back to form. After four terrible outings in the UAE, Suryakumar Yadav looked his usual self against Delhi but threw away his wicket at a critical juncture. The in-form Suryakumar Yadav has managed only 222 runs in 12 IPL games averaging a below-par 18.5. This is in stark contrast to MI’s last season in UAE, where Suryakumar Yadav had scored 480 runs in 16 games averaging 40.
Axar Patel Bowed According To The Batsman’s Strengths And Tried To Be Unpredictable
Delhi left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who was adjudged man-of-the-match for his 3/21, said his plan was to bowl full against Suryakumar Yadav.
“I was bowling according to the batsmen’s strengths. Surya was mostly playing sweep and over the cover shots. So I was bowling him full. I was not being predictable and that was the gameplan I had with Rishabh,” said Patel.
“The wicket is a bit slow and the ball is stopping a bit, it’s not coming on to bat as you expect. It’s hard to play big shots here,” Patel said.
The New Zealander Shane Bond felt that the pitch was on the slower side, so anything in excess of 140 would have been a competitive total. Despite putting only 128 on the board, MI was still in with a chance, but a lower-order partnership involving Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin managed to guide the DC side home.
Mumbai Indians Remaining games: vs RR (Oct 5), vs SRH (Oct 8)