Image Credit- BCCI
Mumbai Indians (MI) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by ten wickets with 10.2 overs remaining on Wednesday, making them the first side eliminated from the IPL 2024 playoffs.
After beating the Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders with 16 points apiece, SRH now sits in third place with 14 points after their victory in Hyderabad. On May 14, LSG and DC will play each other. One of them teams will score at least 13 points. If MI wins their final two league games, they can only reach a maximum of 12, which will drop them out of the top four.
MI lost three straight games to open the season under new captain Hardik Pandya’s leadership. Despite winning three of their next four games, a run of four straight losses seriously hurt their hopes of making the playoffs.
Their standout performer has been Jasprit Bumrah, who, after 12 games, tops the wicket rankings with 18 wickets at an economy of 6.20. No one has scored more than 400 runs after 12 innings, and none of their other bowlers have been economical enough. Additionally, their hitters have not done well. With 384 runs at an average of 42.66, Tilak Varma leads their scorers, followed by Suryakumar Yadav (334 in nine innings). In 12 innings, Rohit Sharma has only scored 330 runs.
Hardik has also had a bad season, taking 11 wickets at an economy rate of 10.58 and managing just 198 runs in 11 innings. They have given Mohammad Nabi, Romario Shepherd, and Nuwan Thushara opportunities, but they haven’t been able to extract the most out of their foreign players. Only 13 of their 68 wickets in the competition so far have come from their spin department, which was their weakest point. Although they have triumphed in three of their six home games, they have struggled away from home, with Punjab Kings being the only team they have defeated in five outings.
Their early elimination means that MI’s wait for their sixth IPL title continues, having won their fourth and fifth trophies in 2019 and 2020. Since then, they have made the playoffs only once in four seasons, in 2023 when they were eliminated by Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2.