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The Mumbai Indians suffered their fifth-straight defeat of the season as they lost to Punjab Kings by 12 runs. The five-time champions failed to chase the target of 199 as they kept losing crucial wickets at regular intervals. In the first innings, Punjab’s batter went on the offensive from the get-go as the openers put up 97 runs for the first wicket.
Then important cameos by Jitesh Sharma and Shahrukh Khan propelled their innings to a massive total. The MI Paltan also looked good with the bat but could not maximize their chances and once again faltered in the end.
Changes in the Points Table
After the twenty-third match of the IPL 2022, Mumbai Indians are at the bottom of the table with zero points and a net run rate of -1.072. Whereas the Punjab Kings are third on the table with six points from five games and a net run rate of +0.239. MI will face Lucknow Super Giants on 16 April while PBKS will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad on 17 April.
Today’s Matchup
The Gujarat Titans will lock horns with the Rajasthan Royals in today’s game of the IPL. The Gujarat Titans lost their previous match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets, whereas the Rajasthan Royals edged out Lucknow Super Giants by three runs.
What did the captains say?
PBKS captain Mayank Agarwal was elated by the team’s performance and talked about the positives from the game. In his post-match interview, he said, “It was a good night, very happy to contribute to the team's win. The crucial thing for us was the two points. We can't just say it was runs on the board, this game had a lot of ups and downs. There were a lot of crucial moments and more often than not, we were nailing and winning those moments. When the game was 50-50, we won those moments and it came towards us."
“We were a lot smarter as well. In the last game against Gujarat, we gave wickets to Rashid when it wasn't required. This time we were a lot more aware, we were a lot more careful and made sure that we don't try and give wickets to their main bowlers", he added.
"It's nice, very happy to have three wins. We are playing good cricket overall. If we continue to do that, if we improve 5-10% every game, we'll go on to do special things”, he concluded.
However, MI captain Rohit Sharma was dejected with the fifth loss of the team and said, “It's hardly anything to find out (any negatives), thought we played well, came pretty close to closing the game, a couple of run-outs didn't help our cause. At one time, we were cruising along, but didn't hold our nerves, credit to PBKS for bowling well in the second half. We're trying to play with a different thought process, but it's not working out well.”
“But I don't want to take the credit out of the guys who played well and Punjab did so today. We aren't playing good cricket, we need to understand some situations and execute according to it. They got off to a flier, put our bowlers was under pressure, but the pitch was good to bat on and I thought 198 was chaseable. As I said earlier, we need to go back to the drawing room and come back better prepared.”
