IPL 2019 | Player Ratings - Mumbai Indian falter in big chase despite Yuvraj Singh-Krunal Pandya heroics

03/24/2019

After Harbhajan Singh's solid performance yesterday, Yuvraj Singh turned the clock back in Mumbai today with a vintage performance, but Mumbai ended up being on the losing side. The lack of proper understanding the wicket cost the hosts the game even before the second innings started.

Rohit Sharma (3/10): Rohit Sharma wouldn’t have an excuse for his dismissal. The ball was on the length, and instead of playing it with full force, he unnecessarily went down on his knees to get a top edge. Even though MI have one of the strongest middle orders in the IPL, in a run chase of this magnitude, the onus was on the skipper to anchor the inninngs.

Quinton de Kock (7/10): Cry RCB cry. After trading de Kock to Mumbai, the South African added proper balance to Mumbai team, and his 27 off 16 balls was as good as it could get. The wicket-keeper was very good behind the stumps as well, and despite the presence of Ishan Kishan in the squad, it won’t be a bad idea to ask de Kock to continue essaying the role in the next matches.

Suryakumar Yadav (4/10): Surya Kumar Yadav paid the price for his overambitious attitude and despite knowing that the ball was in Shreyas Iyer’s hands at mid-off, he went for a run. Realistically, a run was never there and his Mumbai state teammate did the rest.

Yuvraj Singh (8/10): When backs are against the wall, trust Yuvraj Singh to stand up and roll back the clock to produce a vintage performance. Well, it might be an exaggeration to say that Yuvraj's innings was a classic one, but then again, how else would you explain a Yuvraj Singh 50 at this stage of his career. I have an eight for him.

Kieron Pollard (6/10): Kieron Pollard is assigned to give the middle-over impetus to the team and considering he is no more bowling in T20s, his KRAs are pretty much well-defined. He got off to a good start, and played his role to perfection, but failed to continue for long, which meant the pressure mounted on Yuvraj Singh, which means I am reducing one more point from his rating than what I initially thought of.

Hardik Pandya (2/10): It took almost 90 Tests for Ishant Sharma to understand his quality as a pacer, and I am just wondering how many T20s Hardik Pandya needs to play to justify his talent. To get a better idea, imagine this, you have one set batsman at the other end and just needed to be smarter in his approach. Instead of doing that, a simple return catch to Axar Patel ended his stay in the middle.

Krunal Pandya (6/10): The stage was set, the partner was performing well at the other end, and all Krunal Pandya had to do was keep his patience while unleashing those big hoicks simultaneously. However, the timing of his dismissal was something that pointed fingers towards the fragile formula of senseless big-hitting. His bowling figures mean that I can't give him anything more than a six.

Ben Cutting (3/10): Cutting's sensational ball-bashing in the Big Bash League left many people gasping for breathe, and when Mumbai needed him do an encore of it, or at least do something to keep them in contention, Cutting failed terribly. The pressure was way too much on him to perform too, which could be attributed as one of the reasons behind his non-performance with the bat, but his bowling was so bad that he didn't have anything to remember from the game.

Mitchell McClenaghan (7.5/10): All said and done, McClenaghan is a serious wicket-taker and there is no doubt to that aspect of his cricket. However, it is more to introspect that he always concedes runs more than any average pacer in a T20 game, and today was no different. He picked up three wickets - which of course was of great value - but had he checked the run flow a bit, it would have kept Mumbai in good stead.

Rasikh Salam (6/10): When all six bowlers spent more than 10 runs an over, one needs to applaud the 17-year-old J&K cricketer for the way he showed his potential with the new ball. He tried to do all sort of thing and bowled a very good first over to Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan, but the lack of experience resulted in his failure to pick up a wicket.

Jasprit Bumrah (5/10): One of the things that every bowler hates to concede more runs in their last over as it messes up their economy big-time and doesn’t tell the actual story of their bowling in the game. Bumrah had given away only 24 runs in three overs, but 16 runs in the last over was the reason his bowling figure had a bad look today.