‘We aren’t sticking to our plans’: MI coach Shane Bond not pleased with bowlers

MI pacer Jason Behrendorff with captain Rohit Sharma during their match v LSG at Lucknow on Tuesday. Pic/BCCI; PTI

Even if you are a cocky outfit you still have to be on top of your game. Even a minor slip can prove disastrous. That's what happened to five-time winners Mumbai Indians (MI) in their penultimate league match at the Ekana Stadium on Tuesday night. They were in control for a major part of the match, but somehow allowed Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to come back strongly and give themselves a stunning blow which has now put a question mark on their chances of making the Playoffs.

Talking about the disappointing loss, MI's bowling coach Shane Bond said: "Just two periods in the game for us where, first with the ball, the last four overs were poor, and a little period in the middle of our batting where two of our most important batters fell in succession. Those two little periods of cricket combined to lose us the game by a handful of runs."

Shane Bond

It was a big risk MI skipper Rohit Sharma had taken by deciding to chase a total at a venue where the quality of pitches had been poor right through the IPL season. Yet, MI were just one big hit from winning the game. Unluckily, that hit never came and the team fell short by five runs.

Asked if the decision to chase was the right call to take, especially on a pitch like the Ekana, which tends to slow down as matches progress, Bond replied, "If you look at the strength of our team, it's our batting. We have a long batting order and we've chased brilliantly throughout the tournament. But losing Rohit and Ishan [Kishan] in succession gave us a big jolt. And then Surya [Suryakumar Yadav] was out while playing his favourite shot. Still, we had our chances. We need to give credit to the Lucknow bowlers especially Mohsin [Khan] who kept their nerve when it mattered."

Also Read: LSG move one step closer to play-off berth with five-run win over Mumbai Indians

LSG's top-order collapse

MI bowlers had made a great start, reducing LSG to 35 for three. However, Marcus Stoinis's brilliant unbeaten 89 off just 47 deliveries helped the home team reach 177 for three, which eventually proved to be a winning total. His massive assault on the Mumbai bowling garnered 54 runs in the last three overs which according to Bond, was the difference between the two teams.

"For me, the most frustrating thing is not sticking to the plans that we talked about. We were really clear about the things we wanted to do on this wicket. And for players like Stoinis at the back end, we just couldn't bowl where we wanted to bowl consistently enough. Today, Stoinis was looking to hit the ball straight down the ground and we knew that's what he was trying to do. We just dished up balls for him to do it. In the end, his innings was the difference between the two teams," he added.

There were also questions on the form of Cameron Green, who was picked by MI for a whopping Rs 17.5 crore, but has failed to deliver time and again. So was the case on Tuesday night when he struggled to put the bat on the ball when one big hit would have settled the issue in his team's favour. He faced six balls and managed just four runs and could not even give the strike to Tim David in the final over.

Bond comes to Green's defence

Bond came to Green's defence, saying that he has had limited opportunities to bat in the top order. "If you look at the last few games, and we have won four of them, he's just slid down to No. 7. He hasn't batted much, and the same was tonight - he had just a handful of balls. He couldn't get the runs, but has been an important part of our team.

"He was at three at the start of the tournament and did a great job for us. As it's turned out, we've just used other players, Surya in particular, who has been pushed up to No. 3, which has pushed Greenie to the backend of the innings. Sadly, that has not worked for him," Bond added.

Not everything is lost for Mumbai. They need to win their last game at home against Sunrisers Hyderabad and win big to boost their NRR. If other results in the final round go in their favour, they can still finish in the Top-4 and keep their chances of winning the trophy for the sixth time, alive. Till then, their supporters will have their fingers crossed.