This defeat marked Mumbai Indians’ third consecutive loss in the tournament, posing a challenging start to their campaign.Opting to bowl first, Rajasthan Royals restricted Mumbai Indians to a total of 125 for nine, and then comfortably chased down the target with 27 balls to spare.
Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya accepted the fact that it was a tough night for them and not an ideal start for the team in such a big tournament.
“Yes, a tough night, we didn’t start the way we wanted to start. I wanted to counter, we were in a decent position to get us around 150-160, but my wicket allowed them to get back more into the game, I needed to do a lot more. It’s okay, we didn’t expect such a surface, but you can’t always have it as a batter, it’s nice at times for the bowlers to have a say,” Hardik said at the post-match presentation.
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“It’s all about doing the right things, (correct) results happen at times, at some other times it doesn’t. As a group, we believe we can do a lot better, but we need to be a bit more disciplined and show a lot more courage,” Hardik added.
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On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson felt winning the toss made the difference in the end.
“I think the toss was the game changer. The wicket was too sticky to start off, and the experience of Boult and Burger helped us. He’s been playing for 10-15 years, and that is what we expected with the new ball. Didn’t expect 4-5 wickets to fall, but we knew our bowlers would do well,” Samson said after the match.
“We know we have big individuals in our team, but where we stand out is everyone recognises their role, does it and moves on. The likes of Ash and Chahal realised we had a good powerplay, and they kept it tight without really looking for wickets. (On Chahal) I think he was really fired up for this IPL, and he’s been doing well for the past 2-3 years for us,” Samson added.