'There is no support for Jasprit Bumrah in that attack' – Brian Lara on Mumbai Indians' bowling after loss to CSK

Former West Indian cricketer Brian Lara shares his thoughts on Mumbai Indians bowling and how the whole bowling department is dependent on Jasprit Bumrah. Former cricketer Kevin Pietersen spoke on Matheesha Pathirana’s superb bowling performance against Mumbai Indians.

“Not much, I think when we look at Mumbai Indians, a lot of people have them as favourites, simply because they were batting so well - they came and they scored 230 runs [against SRH], they chased on 196 [against RCB], made it look very easy, 15 overs. So, on that fact I think, we pick them as favourites for this game, but their bowling is poor. Beyond Jasprit Bumrah, there is no one to actually support them in that bowling attack, and the CSK batters took them apart. The spinners, they only bowled four overs after around seven runs an over, but they weren't trusted with Shivam Dube out there, so MI will have to improve in that area,” Lara said on Star Sports’ Cricket Live.

“And what it tells me more about this game is that, if you've got a good bowling unit, like CSK, you look at their bowling, every single bowler played a part in that game, every single bowler. We had dot balls at the time, we thought that Mumbai Indians were supposed to accelerate, they didn't. So, for me, Hardik Pandya had it tough, I think he turned himself in the last couple of overs, the master did, you know, three sixes in the last 4-5 balls, but they've got to find a couple of bowlers, match-winning bowlers,” he added.

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Kevin Pietersen spoke on Matheesha Pathirana’s performance and highlighted how his unorthodox bowling action and plans makes it difficult for batters to score against him.

“Very unorthodox, and with unorthodox bowlers you've got to sometimes just mind your gap as they say, because you've got to get used to his delivery, and you've got to get used to where the ball is coming from, because it's not the ordinary and normal, it's unorthodox, and it's abnormal, so you've got to bide your time,” he said.

“I think it's very difficult for a guy like Romario Shepherd to come in at the end when he's bowling so beautifully with the older ball, and he's also got that wonderful ability to not reverse in swing the ball, but he's got the ball to reverse and dip, and that's quite a hard ball to face, and it was something that Malinga had as well.

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"So it was reverse, but it wasn't reverse in, it  was reverse down, and that's always going away from the angle of where you're trying to hit the ball, so even if you're covering the ball, and it's coming towards you at an angle, which most people do in the reverse swing, here you can hit the ball, because you can hit almost directly in line with the ball, and you can hit it straight, and you can also maybe try and lap the ball. When you've got a bowler that's coming at an angle, but it's not coming on at a natural angle, it's coming on at an angle that actually starts to dip on you, then you can't actually play the sweep, you can't play the ramp, because it's going to get under your bat, and then it also makes it really hard to hit down the ground. So yeah, it's unorthodox, but it's a gem for CSK, what a bowler, that four for today, big wickets, big wickets, not tail enders, big wickets,” he concluded.