Mumbai Indians appeared rusty against Rising Pune Supergiant after key players were rested against Kolkata Knight Riders. Patel wants the Mumbai team to treat next game as the semifinal.
Mumbai Indians (MI) had a formatted team pattern for the major part of the league stage. That’s until the team management decided to rest six key players for their final league game against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and disrupt a set combination.
MI went back partly to their successful format for the Qualifier 1 against Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), but couldn’t replicate the success when it mattered the most.
Out of the six that were benched for the KKR game, two did not play on Tuesday (Harbhajan Singh and Nitish Rana), two had a decent outing (Lasith Malinga and Parthiv Patel), while two had a forgettable day (Mitchell McClenaghan and Jasprit Bumrah).
It’s the final duo that has played a big role in MI’s high-flying victories in the league stage, picking up wickets as well as choking runs at the death.
Against RPS, McClenaghan and Bumrah had only one wicket to show for between themselves and were prime characters in turning the match on its head by giving away 26 and 15 runs, respectively, in the RPS innings’ final couple of overs.
Not taking the field in almost a week could’ve played its part in the pacers’ rusty show, for it was surely an aberration coming from two of the MI’s most trusted weapons at the death.
Which begs the question: was the disruption in team combination just before a crunch game like this necessary?
“We were assured of first or second position (in the points table). Sometimes in a tournament like this, a break can do good to you. Just because we got a break, I don’t think we were rusty. It was needed for us, and rightly so,” Patel said after MI’s 20-run loss on Tuesday night.
Whatever the case maybe, MI squandered a golden chance of going straight into the final after playing the first qualifier at home. They will now have to notch up a victory in Bengaluru in the second qualifier on Friday to repeat a showdown with RPS.
“We’ve got to believe that we’ve got another chance. We’ve played well throughout the tournament, and that is why we’ve got another chance of playing in the final. For us, it is very important to forget about what has happened today (Tuesday), and treat next game as a semifinal,” Patel said.
Why Bhajji was dropped
Parthiv Patel said senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was benched for the first qualifier because the Rising Pune Supergiant had no left-handed batsman in their top-six. “You can look at it both ways,” Patel said when asked if keeping Harbhajan out was a mistake. “Having all right-handers (in RPS), the team management took a call on going with two away going bowlers (Karn Sharma and Krunal Pandya).”
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 "IPL 10, IPL 2017, Indian Premier League 2017, Mumbai Indians (MI), Parthiv Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell McCl")
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