Apart from Jasprit Bumrah, there is not much in Mumbai Indians' bowling attack and they need to improve in that part of the game, said West Indies legend Brian Lara after MI lost by 20 runs to Chennai Super Kings in their IPL match . Bumrah (0/27 from 4 overs) had an ordinary day against CSK considering the high standard he sets for himself and captain Hardik Pandya was hammered for three consecutive sixes by the peerless MS Dhoni as MI lost the match at home on Sunday evening. (IPL 2024 points table)
“Not much, I think when we look at Mumbai Indians, a lot of people have them as favorites simply because they were batting so well, they scored 230 runs, they were chasing 196, which made it look very easy, 15 overs , so based on that I think we'll pick them as favourites,” Lara said on Star Sports' Cricket Live Show.
“But their bowling is poor. Apart from Jasprit Bumrah, there is no one to actually back them in that bowling attack and the CSK batters have taken them apart.” MI did not use their spinners after the eighth over as Shivam Dube, who was impressive against the slow bowlers, was on the edge.
“The spinners bowled only 4 overs at around 7 runs per over, but they were not trusted with Shivam Dube. So MI will have to improve in that area, they have to find some bowlers, match-winning bowlers,” the batsman said.
“What it tells me more about this game is that when you have a good bowling unit like CSK, you look at their bowling, every single bowler played a role in that game, every single bowler.
“We had point balls at the time, we thought Mumbai Indians should accelerate but they didn't.” When Pandya was hit for three consecutive sixes in the last over, Lara said, “For me, Hardik Pandya had a tough time, I think he turned himself around in the last few overs, the master (MS Dhoni) did, you know, three sixes in the last 4-5 balls.” Sri Lankan Matheesha Pathirana (4/28) was the choice of the CSK bowlers who stopped MI to 186 for 6 in 20 overs, 21 runs short of the winning target, and former England captain Kevin Pietersen praised the “unorthodox” right arm pacer.
“Very unorthodox, and with unorthodox bowlers sometimes you have to watch your gap, as they say, because you have to get used to his delivery, and you have to get used to where the ball comes from because it is not normal and normal, but abnormal.
“So you have to bide your time… when he is bowling so beautifully with the older ball, and he also has that great ability to not swing back with the ball, but he has the ball to go back and dipping, and that's quite a tough ball to face.” Pietersen compared Pathirana to Sri Lanka great Lasith Malinga, who is currently with MI as a bowling coach.
“It was something that Malinga had too, it was backwards, but it wasn't backwards, it was backwards, and that always goes away from the angle where you're trying to hit the ball,” he said.
“If you have a bowler who comes up from an angle, but he doesn't come up from a natural angle, he comes up from an angle that actually starts diving at you, then you can't really play the sweep, you can't play on the slope, because it comes under your bat, and then it becomes very difficult to hit the ground. It's a gem for CSK, what a bowler.'
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