Mumbai Indians’ slide
The defending champion did not appear impenetrable for the first time in three years. The fifth spot wasn’t its worst-ever performance, but given the standards the side has set in recent years, the fall was a bit surprising.
Jasprit Bumrah continued to be among the wickets – 21 wickets at 19.52 – but it seems the team’s Achilles heel this season was its batting. The highest runs tally was Rohit
Sharma’s; his 381 runs included a solitary half-century in 13 matches. Suryakumar Yadav and Quinton de Kock scored four half-centuries between them, and extraordinary cameos from
Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya weren’t frequent enough.
Ishan Kishan was out of form for a long time before finally coming to the fore against SRH in the final group game, when the team was almost out.
Pollard showed his prowess during his unbeaten innings of
87 against CSK in the first phase of the competition. Since the resumption, his scores have been: 15, 21, 7, 15 n.o., 6, and 13.
There was a lot of interest among the members of the media to know when Hardik would be ready to start bowling; he didn’t bowl at all, but it was his failures with the bat that probably hurt the team more than his lack of bowling.
Captain Rohit used the word “inconsistent” to describe his team’s performance, perhaps referring to the sporadic rather than regular shows of excellence from his team members. He also pointed out that a few injuries unsettled the team combination when the team re-gathered for the second leg.