CNN Central News & Network-ITDC India Epress / ITDC News : After Sunrisers Hyderabad’s demolition job of Lucknow Super Giants at the Rajiv Gandhi international Stadium, Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians have become the first team to be eliminated from the IPL 2024 playoff race. With two games to play, MI are left to play for pride and avoid the wooden spoon at the end of a disappointing season.
It was a turmoil-laden season for MI as the change of guard – with Hardik Pandya replacing Rohit Sharma as the skipper – did not help change their fortunes on the field, while off the field MI management were left to do firefighting due to the fans backlash over the decision to bring in Pandya in place of the 5-time title winning skipper Rohit.
However, despite the tough transition, MI left a lot to be desired for in the field itself, enduring eight losses in 12 matches. With two more games remaining, MI can reach a maximum of 12 points by the end of the league stage, which would not be enough to make it to the top-four. As of after the SRH vs LSG game, three teams are already on 12 points – CSK, DC and LSG. CSK have three games remaining, while DC and LSG have two each.
LSG and DC will be playing each other next week, which means one of those teams will eventually reach 14 points and MI would not be able to catch up to that mathematically even if they win both of their remaining games – against current table-topper KKR and LSG.
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MI’s disappointing season
MI had a rough start to their IPL 2024 campaign, losing their opening fixture to Pandya’s former team Gujarat Titans by six runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. This was followed by an absolute shellacking by SRH, who amassed the then highest ever IPL total of 277/3 demolishing the MI bowling unit. Though the batters put up a brave front to reply with 246/5, they lost the match by 31 runs. Against Rajasthan Royals, they lost their third consecutive match by 6 runs.
It was in their 4th IPL 2024 game that they notched up their first win posting 234/5 and then restricting DC to 205/8 in Mumbai. This was followed by a win against RCB at home, but they endured a loss to CSK in the next game. They beat Punjab Kings at Mullanpur before enduring a string of four losses that derailed their campaign significantly. Two of those four losses were quite heavy – a nine-wicket drubbing at the hands of RR while defending 179 and another run-fest in Delhi in which DC ransacked 257/4.
