Shane Bond feels that three bad overs cost Mumbai Indians dearly

The Mumbai Indians find themselves on the wrong end of the points table. They have been a part of quite a few nail-biting finishes but have failed to end up on the winning side on any of the occasions. The team is yet to figure out their best playing XI and the constant changing of the batting order is also affecting the results. The men in blue have just two wins from eight games. and are in the lower half of the points tally.

The senior players have failed to deliver for MI. Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya haven’t lived up to their expectations while Kieron Pollard hasn’t contributed anything to the side with bat or ball. On Tuesday, they were up against RCB who were in similar situation. Being put into bat, RCB clawed their way to 167/7 in 20 overs. The interesting thing is that the men in blue conceded 66 runs in 3 overs and only 101 in their remaining 17 overs.

Deja Vu

“We gave 15 runs above what we would have liked. Whereas we bowled well for 17 overs, we bowled three overs which were terrible basically, which cost us probably 60-65 runs,” Shane Bond, Mumbai Indians bowling coach said after the match against RCB. He also admitted that MI were chasing 15 extra runs that probably cost them the game. The three sixes that Colin de Grandhomme hit in the last over took the momentum away from Mumbai.

Bond also defended Sharma’s decision to bat at No. 4 instead to going all guns blazing at the top. “If you look at the success of the team and the times you have won titles, he has always batted at No. 4. So at the end of the day, he has batted at No 4 and won games for us. There’s always been a debate about where Rohit should bat. History would suggest No. 4 is the best place he should bat at. Today he got a beauty of a delivery,” added the former New Zealand fast bowler.

It was like a deja vu moment for the men in blue as similar to previous matches the team was in the game for the major part of the innings and stutter in the last few overs. Rohit & Co. have an uphill task here on as they need to win all of their remaining matches.

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