After his side’s six-wicket loss against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match, Mumbai Indians (MI) pacer Akash Madhwal said the team environment is excellent and both skipper Hardik Pandya as former captain Rohit Sharma is supportive. Riyan Parag blitzkrieg left Mumbai Indians (MI) fooled as Rajasthan Royals (RR) sailed to their third consecutive victory in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) with a six-wicket victory over the five-time champions at Wankhede Stadium on Monday .
After the match, Madhwal spoke to the media about the environment within the team, sitting out the playing XI for the first two matches and what the mentality of the bowling attack was after the team was reduced to just 125/9 after going ahead. first bat by Rajasthan Royals.
Speaking about the team’s support and the overall atmosphere, Madhwal, as quoted on MI’s official website, said: “The team environment is excellent. Both Rohit and Hardik are supportive, and I spoke to Hardik and Rohit during the practice match. (Jasprit) Bumrah bhai was also there. We should do better in the coming matches.”
When Madhwal was asked about being left out of the team for the first two matches, he said the match should be played for the team and not for individual reasons.
“The combinations for the first two matches were good in themselves as world-class bowlers are constantly competing for a place in the team,” he said.
Madhwal made his IPL debut last season and picked up 14 wickets in eight matches at an average of 15.64, with best bowling figures of 5/5 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the eliminator match.
The pacer said that during the innings break, after a disastrous performance with the bat, the team discussed the need to take as many wickets as possible to put the pressure back on the opposition.
“Even during the strategic timeout, we discussed sticking to the plan and taking 2-3 wickets to gain the upper hand,” he added.
“The way the wicket was, we had to get the basics right. We had to bowl wicket-to-wicket. What we had planned, all our bowlers followed it. We planned to get the basics right and bowl wicket-to. -wicket as the pitch also helped fast bowlers,” Madhwal added.
Coming to the match, RR, after winning the toss, chose to bowl first. Trent Boult (22/3) destroyed the MI top order in the powerplay, reducing it to 20/4. A 56-run partnership between skipper Hardik Pandya (34 in 21 balls, with six fours) and Tilak Varma (32 in 29 balls, with two sixes) briefly brought some order to the innings before MI suffered another collapse to end at 125/ 9 off 20 overs.
Yuzvendra Chahal (3/11) and Nandre Burger (2/32) bowled very well for RR and rocked the MI batting line-up with regular wickets, never giving them a chance to catch their breath.
In the chase, RR lost openers Jos Buttler (13), Yashasvi Jaiswal (10) while skipper Sanju Samson could only make 12 in 10 balls. Reduced to 48/3 they found themselves in a difficult situation. But Riyan Parag pulled off another brilliant save and scored 54* in 39 balls, with five fours and three sixes, taking his side to a six-wicket win with 27 balls to spare.
Akash Madhwal (3/20) was the choice of the bowlers for MI.
Boult took home the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
Rajasthan are at the top of the points table with three wins in three matches, giving them a total of six points. Mumbai, on the other hand, are at the bottom and have lost all three matches so far.
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