Mumbai Indians suffering due to middle order failure, says Ajit Agarkar

IPL’s most successful franchise with 3 titles, the Mumbai Indians were faced with an elimination battle in the ongoing season. With only 2 wins from 8 games, the Rohit Sharma led squad were tied in a do or die situation when they faced the mighty Kings XI Punjab last night.

Prior to the fixture, speaking about Mumbai’s poor run, former Indian bowling spearhead Ajit Agarkar blamed it on MI’s middle order. The defending champions have failed to chase down paltry targets or set up a good score, losing almost most of their encounters by a narrow margin

Agarkar opined as quoted by TOI, “Their (MI) bowling attack is quite potent, (but) they haven’t again delivered. Their batting has kind of let them down – their middle order. They just somehow have missed the important moments in a game and have probably let themselves down.”

Agarkar also emphasised that MI should re-look at their batting order. “They need to start getting their batting right. Rohit, for me, needs to bat at number three, if he is not opening, and not lower than that. They need Rohit to play well. Others have to chip in. Suryakumar Yadav has been good for them. Apart from that, they haven’t had too many match-winners in their batting, which is a bit of worry.”

Match Details

Keeping aside any unrest, Mumbai Indians cantered to a win last night, defeating KXIP by six wickets. Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya delivered in desperate times as Mumbai Indians stayed alive in the IPL with a tense win. Rohit scored 24* off 15 while Krunal sped his way to 31* off 12 as the dup shared a match-winning 56-run stand off just 21 balls to reach the 175-run target in 19 overs.

Earlier, the home team was well-placed to post a big total after being 78 for one in 10 overs. Gayle collected just one run off the first eight balls he faced before racing to his half-century, his fourth fifty-plus score in five innings of the IPL so far.

However, KXIP lost their way in the middle overs and it was Marcus Stoinis who hit 22-runs in last over from Pandya, else KXIP would have ended up way short of the expected mark.

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